Natural remobilization and historical evolution of a modern coastal transgressive dunefield

The vast majority of coastal dunes in Europe have been stabilized by increasing vegetation cover since the mid-20th century. However, some systems may experience a remobilization phase, generally occurring locally and further propagating alongshore, the drivers of which remain poorly documented. This study investigates the evolutionary paths (stabilization/destabilization/remobilization) from 1945 to 2020 of a 2 km-long modern coastal transgressive dunefield located in southwest France with a holistic approach (GPR profiles, aerial photographs and LiDAR topographic data). Results show a landward migration of the transgressive dune by approximately 233 +/- 7.5 m, through two distinct stages of rapid landward migration from 10 to 23 m/yr (Stage I: 1949-1959 and Stage III: 2000-2021) separated by an approximately 40-year stage of slow to no migration, but with substantial windward slope deflation (Stage II). The onset of Stage II is due to the fixation of vegetation by human action between 1950 and 1959. The onset of Stage III is hypothesized to be driven by long and sustained upper backshore/dune toe erosion beginning in 1968 due to a massive shoal welding that locally disturbed the longshore drift. It induced a destabilization of the dune and erosion of the vegetation cover over some decades. A non-synchronization is therefore observed between the start of the perturbation (1968), then the migration (2000), in line with the hysteresis concept of Tsoar (2005). This study shows that almost all of the sedimentary volume of the 1945 dune has been remobilized by translation to shape the dune system in its current form. The 2.2 km dunefield has grown by approximately 673 000 +/- 190 000 m(3) during the 2005-2020 period. Among this volume, there is a new foredune that was built from 2005 between the upper beach and the transgressive dune (volume in 2020 of about 394 000 +/- 68 000 m(3)).

Automated summary

Since the mid-20th century, most coastal dunes in Europe have been stabilized by vegetation cover. However, some systems experience a remobilization phase, propagating alongshore with poorly documented drivers. This study investigates the evolutionary paths of a coastal dunefield in southwest France from 1945 to 2020, revealing landward migration, windward slope deflation, and the role of human action and shoal welding in destabilization and erosion.