Rôle des interactions biophysiques dans la dynamique dunaire en réponse aux perturbations

Coastal dunes along sandy coasts have often been fixed, or even reprofiled, to protect inland socio-economic assets from floods and storm waves. However, these management methods have sometimes led to the degradation of the dune ecosystem and their resilience to extreme events. Over the last few years, some international studies have addressed the reintroduction of natural dynamics in coastal dune systems. In this context we have carried out a pioneering experiment by excavating notches in a coastal dune system in southwest France. After three years of (UAV photogrammetry) morphological and (in situ) ecological monitoring, the results highlighted that the foredune notches promoted the transport of nutrient-laden sand towards the back dune, leading to an increase in species diversity. This work has strong implications for coastal dune management strategies and sustainable development of these systems, particularly in chronically eroding sectors.Les dunes littorales le long des côtes sableuses ont souvent été fixées, voire reprofilées, pour protéger des inondations et des vagues de tempêtes les biens socio-économiques situés en arrière. Mais ces méthodes de gestion ont parfois mené à la dégradation de l’écosystème des dunes et de leur résilience face aux événements extrêmes. Depuis quelques années, plusieurs études dans le monde ont porté sur la réintroduction de la dynamique naturelle dans les systèmes de dunes côtières. C’est dans ce contexte que nous avons réalisé une expérimentation pionnière en France par la mise en place de brèches dans un système dunaire du sud-ouest de la France. Après 3 ans de suivis morphologiques (photogrammétrie par drone) et écologiques (in situ), les résultats ont mis en avant que les brèches ont favorisé le transport de sable chargé en nutriments vers l’arrière dune, menant à une augmentation de la diversité des espèces. Ces travaux ont donc des implications importantes pour les stratégies de gestion des dunes côtières et le développement durable de ces systèmes, tout particulièrement dans les environnements en érosion chronique

Role of biophysical interactions in governing coastal dune changes in response to perturbations

Les dunes littorales le long des côtes sableuses ont souvent été fixées, voire reprofilées, pour protéger des inondations et des vagues de tempêtes les biens socio-économiques situés en arrière. Mais ces méthodes de gestion ont parfois mené à la dégradation de l’écosystème des dunes et de leur résilience face aux événements extrêmes. Depuis quelques années, plusieurs études dans le monde ont porté sur la réintroduction de la dynamique naturelle dans les systèmes de dunes côtières. C’est dans ce contexte que nous avons réalisé une expérimentation pionnière en France par la mise en place de brèches dans un système dunaire du sud-ouest de la France. Après 3 ans de suivis morphologiques (photogrammétrie par drone) et écologiques (in situ), les résultats ont mis en avant que les brèches ont favorisé le transport de sable chargé en nutriments vers l’arrière dune, menant à une augmentation de la diversité des espèces. Ces travaux ont donc des implications importantes pour les stratégies de gestion des dunes côtières et le développement durable de ces systèmes, tout particulièrement dans les environnements en érosion chronique.Coastal dunes along sandy coasts have often been fixed, or even reprofiled, to protect inland socio-economic assets from floods and storm waves. However, these management methods have sometimes led to the degradation of the dune ecosystem and their resilience to extreme events. Over the last few years, some international studies have addressed the reintroduction of natural dynamics in coastal dune systems. In this context we have carried out a pioneering experiment by excavating notches in a coastal dune system in southwest France. After three years of (UAV photogrammetry) morphological and (in situ) ecological monitoring, the results highlighted that the foredune notches promoted the transport of nutrient-laden sand towards the back dune, leading to an increase in species diversity. This work has strong implications for coastal dune management strategies and sustainable development of these systems, particularly in chronically eroding sectors

Foredune blowout formation and subsequent evolution along a chronically eroding high-energy coast

International audienceCoastal dune systems provide important ecosystem services, while being vulnerable to marine erosion. In these environments, blowouts can develop and promote sand transport from the beach to the back of the dune, but are generally fought by coastal dune managers. There are only few quantitative studies on the 3D evolution of blowouts and how they can develop into parabolic dune. We investigate the morphological evolution of a 2-km long freely evolving dune system in southwest France from 1947 to 2021 using historical aerial photos and digital surface models from Lidar and UAV photogrammetry. The combination of these remote sensing methods shows an alongshore non-uniform erosion with a mean of 1.26 m/year, and with erosion rates in the north of the study area four times larger than in the south. Over the study period, three large blowouts developed in the northern, (more rapidly eroding) sector and subsequently evolved into parabolic dunes, with a depositional lobe migrating landward into the forest. Two parabolic dunes naturally stabilized by vegetation colonization, without any reactivation phase, with the third one still migrating landward with an average migration of 7.2 m/year. A high-frequency and high-resolution analysis of the active blowout was performed between 2014 and 2021. Compared to the adjacent areas, this blowout promoted dune landward migration. Since 2014, the high erosion scarp in the adjacent southern sector prevented the transport of sand resulting in a loss of dune volume due to marine erosion. In contrast, in the adjacent northern sector and in front of the blowout, the presence of vegetation and paleosols at the dune toe favored sand deposition and limited marine erosion. In chronically eroding sectors, promoting blowouts and thus landward dune migration may be considered as an efficient management approach to maintain the dune system

Coastal Dune Morphology Evolution Combining Lidar and UAV Surveys, Truc Vert beach 2011-2019

International audienceIn the context of climate change, coastal dunes, which provide significant ecosystem services, are one of the most vulnerable coastal environments. Moreover, the lack of high resolution and large spatial scale data limits our understanding of coastal dunes, which are subject to important morphological variations over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. This study is focused on combining non-intrusive remote sensing methods including a series of historical aerial photographs, airborne Lidar and UAV surveys in order to better understand the coastal dune morphodynamic on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. On the time scale of decades, aerial photos indicate a reasonably stable coastal dune position, with large anthropogenic reprofiling and vegetation planting resulting in a reasonably alongshore-uniform morphology. On shorter time scales, the combination of Lidar and UAV 4-km surveys between 2011 and 2019 shows a quasi-steady dune volume increase by approximately 64 m3/m, associated with a foredune crest growth and a landward migration reaching 1.1 m and 0.54 m in average, respectively. On the other hand, the dune foot shows a more complex dynamics, dominated by a large landward migration (shoreline erosion) of approximately 20 m during the outstanding winter of 2013/2014 followed by a slow seaward migration (recovery). This study provides new insight into coastal dune morphological changes driven by both Aeolian and marine processes from the time scale of storm to approximately a decade, highlighting the relevance of UAV surveys for such applications

Low-Cost UAV for High-Resolution and Large-Scale Coastal Dune Change Monitoring Using Photogrammetry

International audienceIn this paper, coastal dune data are collected at Truc Vert, SW France, using photogrammetry via Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). A low-cost GoPro-equipped DJI Phantom 2 quadcopter and a 20 MPix camera-equipped DJI Phantom 4 Pro quadcopter UAVs were used to remotely sense the coastal dune morphology over large spatial scales (4 km alongshore, i.e., approximately 1 km 2 of beach-dune system), within a short time (less than 2 h of flight). The primary objective of this paper is to propose a low-cost and replicable approach which, combined with simple and efficient permanent Ground Control Point (GCP) setup , can be applied to routinely survey upper beach and coastal dune morphological changes at high frequency (after each storm) and high resolution (0.1 m). Results show that a high-resolution and accurate Digital Surface Model (DSM) can be inferred with both UAVs if enough permanent GCPs are implemented. The more recent DJI Phantom 4 gives substantially more accurate DSM with a root-mean-square vertical error and bias of 0.05 m and −0.03 m, respectively, while the DSM inferred from the DJI Phantom 2 still largely meets the standard for coastal monitoring. The automatic flight plan procedure allows replicable surveys to address large-scale morphological evolution at high temporal resolution (e.g., weeks, months), providing unprecedented insight into the coastal dune evolution driven by marine and aeolian processes. The detailed morphological evolution of a 4-km section of beach-dune system is analyzed over a 6-month winter period, showing highly alongshore variable beach and incipient foredune wave-driven erosion, together with wind-driven inland migration of the established foredune by a few meters, and alongshore-variable sand deposition on the grey dune. In a context of widespread erosion, this photogrammetry approach via low-cost flexible and lightweight UAVs is well adapted for coastal research groups and coastal dune management stakeholders, including in developing countries where data are lacking

Classification of Atlantic Coastal Sand Dune Vegetation Using In Situ, UAV, and Airborne Hyperspectral Data

International audienceMapping coastal dune vegetation is critical to understand dune mobility and resilience in the context of climate change, sea level rise, and increased anthropogenic pressure. However, the identification of plant species from remotely sensed data is tedious and limited to broad vegetation communities, while such environments are dominated by fragmented and small-scale landscape patterns. In June 2019, a comprehensive multi-scale survey including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), hyperspectral ground, and airborne data was conducted along approximately 20 km of a coastal dune system in southwest France. The objective was to generate an accurate mapping of the main sediment and plant species ground cover types in order to characterize the spatial distribution of coastal dune stability patterns. Field and UAV data were used to assess the quality of airborne data and generate a robust end-member spectral library. Next, a two-step classification approach, based on the normalized difference vegetation index and Random Forest classifier, was developed. Results show high performances with an overall accuracy of 100% and 92.5% for sand and vegetation ground cover types, respectively. Finally, a coastal dune stability index was computed across the entire study site. Different stability patterns were clearly identified along the coast, highlighting for the first time the high potential of this methodology to support coastal dune management

The role of physical disturbance for litter decomposition and nutrient cycling in coastal sand dunes

International audienceDisturbance increases ecosystem functioning in productive habitats but its effect in stressful conditions is less documented, although this is crucial for understanding the resilience of disturbed systems to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Our goal is to assess the influence of physical disturbance for ecosystem functioning in coastal sand dunes. We set up an experimental design, including two treatments in four blocks, in a four km-long dune site from South West France. We simulated physical disturbance from marine and wind origin, digging Experimental Notches (EN), in the incipient (West EN treatment) and established foredunes (East EN treatment), respectively and compared the effects of EN to controls along transects including 13 positions from the beach to the transition dune behind ENs. We sampled litter decomposition rate, elevation variation, wind abrasion, sand grain size and vegetation composition. We also used drones to quantify sand deposition sheets during severe winter storms. Litter decomposition rate was the highest where sand accumulated the most, at the ecotone between the established foredune and transition dune and in the East EN treatment. This increase of ecosystem functioning was correlated to wind patterns. However, there was also a strong alongshore variability, with important sand deposition sheets occurring in some blocks depending on dune geomorphology. Vegetation composition was mainly influenced by shoreline distance, but also by the block and EN treatment, with a strong interaction between these three effects. We conclude that physical disturbance increase ecosystem functioning in the stressful conditions of the Atlantic sand dunes, only when sand accumulates, whereas excessive disturbances enhancing sand erosion are not favorable for ecosystem functioning

150 years of foredune initiation and evolution driven by human and natural processes

International audienceForedunes are efficient natural coastal defenses acting as protective barriers during storm events. They also have the capacity to be an ecosystem hosting significant biodiversity. The economic development and/or recreational use of the foredune commonly results in a modification of natural functioning and the concomitant mixing of natural and anthropogenic processes. While the impact of human interventions on the short term evolution of coastal dunes is reasonably well understood, relatively less is known on their imprint at a scale of several decades. The Truc Vert beach-dune system (SW France), which has been exposed to various dune management strategies for more than a century, provides a relevant site to explore the respective contributions of natural and anthropogenic processes on coastal foredune evolution and the current coastal dune landscape. For this purpose, the coastal dune system was investigated using several approaches that combine ground penetrating radar (GPR), topographic data, aerial photographs and historical maps.A 20-m thick GPR sequence provides a stratigraphic record from which we detail ~150-year period of coastal dune change, including the initiation of the foredune. Results show a mixture of radar facies typical of natural aeolian erosion or deposition and radar facies that are the signature of human actions. These anthropogenic works include a large fence emplaced in 1860 to build and fix the foredune, and intense mechanical reshaping of the dune profile by bulldozers in 1972 followed by an intensive planting of vegetation. These various management strategies had a profound influence on coastal dune changes and, in turn, on the current coastal dune landscape. Historic archives documenting coastal dune works were critical to discriminate some of the radar facies, which could be wrongfully interpreted as natural erosion or deposition facies. Therefore, these results demonstrate the importance of coupling GPR and historical documentation wherever possible to determine, in part or fully, the contributions of human interventions and actions in modern dune evolution and morphological development

Beach-dune Recovery from the Extreme 2013-2014 Storms Erosion at Truc Vert Beach, Southwest France: New Insights from Ground-penetrating Radar

International audienc