Plomaritis, T.A.,Puyana, I., Benavente, J. Rodríguez-Polo, S 2013. Is the grain size trend analysis useful for aeolian sediment transport? The case of Bolonia dune (SW Spain). In: Conley, D.C., Masselink, G., Russell, P.E. and O'Hare, T.J. (eds.)

Grain size trend analysis (GSTA) has been used in various marine environments for the study of sediment transport pathways with a range of results. However, its use in cases of aeolian transport has been limited, despite the fact that the transport mechanisms are very similar. The GSTA was applied to the dune field of Bolonia (SW Spain) located at the western extremity of headland controlled log spiral bay. The principal factors of the formation of the dune are the dominant easterly winds that are locally accelerated due to the topography of the strait of Gibraltar and the forest plantation that started in 1960, as a measure of retraining the sediment transport. In the present study a total of 80 sediment samples were collected on the dune on a 15×30m grid. At the same time, a detailed topographic survey of the dune was conducted using a RTK-DGPS. The granulometric analysis showed little textural variation of parameters on the dune and a tendency to better classification towards the dune crest. The results obtained show a mixed behaviour, with good estimation of the transport pathways at the foot of the dune and opposite pathway direction near the crest. The presence of secondary transversal dune forms and deflation zones has been identified as the main reason for the poor results of the GSTA over this area.