Abstract

Recent works (Evelpidou et al., 2012) suggest that the modern tidal notch is disappearing worldwide duesea level rise over the last century. In order to assess this hypothesis, we measured modern tidal notchesin several of sites along the Mediterranean coasts. We report observations on tidal notches cut alongcarbonate coasts from 73 sites from Italy, France, Croatia, Montenegro, Greece, Malta and Spain, plusadditional observations carried outside the Mediterranean. At each site, we measured notch width anddepth, and we described the characteristics of the biological rim at the base of the notch. We correlatedthese parameters with wave energy, tide gauge datasets and rock lithology.Our results suggest that, considering 'the development of tidal notches the consequence of midlittoralbioerosion' (as done in Evelpidou et al., 2012) is a simplification that can lead to misleading results, suchas stating that notches are disappearing. Important roles in notch formation can be also played by waveaction, rate of karst dissolution, salt weathering and wetting and drying cycles. Of course notch formationcan be augmented and favoured also by bioerosion which can, in particular cases, be the mainprocess of notch formation and development.Our dataset shows that notches are carved by an ensemble rather than by a single process, both todayand in the past, and that it is difficult, if not impossible, to disentangle them and establish which one isprevailing. We therefore show that tidal notches are still forming, challenging the hypothesis that sealevel rise has drowned them.

Autore Pugliese

• Pagliarulo Rosa

Tutti gli autori

• F. Antonioli ; V. Lo Presti ; A. Rovere ; L. Ferranti ;M. Anzidei ; S.Furlani ; G.Mastronuzzi ; P. E. Orru ;G.Scicchitano ; G. Sannino ; C. R. Spampinato ; R. Pagliarulo ;G. Deiana ; E. de Sabata ; P. Sansò ; M. Vacchi ; A. Vecchio

Titolo volume/Rivista

Quaternary science reviews

Anno di pubblicazione

2015

ISSN

0277-3791

ISBN

Non Disponibile

Numero di citazioni Wos

Nessuna citazione

Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Numero di citazioni Scopus

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Ultimo Aggiornamento Citazioni

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Settori ERC

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Codici ASJC

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