The Coastal Dunes of Sardinia: Landscape Response to Climate and Sea Level Changes

The Sardinian coasts are characterized by spectacular aeolian landscapes. These are concentrated in areas where the morphology of the coast, the age-long wind action on the wide sandy beaches and the past availability of sand from the continental shelf—during the low sea level during Pleistocene glacial phases—permitted remarkable volumes of sands to accumulate and to dominate above other forms of the coastal landscape. In the western coast of the island, hit by strong northwestern winds, vast dune fields, adorned by the Mediterranean bush and white flowers of sea, show a spectacular variety of landforms such as small nebkhas, loose dunes, cobblestone floors and deflation furrows. Lithified fossil dunes (aeolianites) occur along most Sardinian coasts, providing important information on past climate and sea level changes . These attractive wind landscapes offer researchers and visitors many and various opportunities of study, recreation and tourism, in a context unique due to the high value of the present and past landscapes.