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Balma del Gai site is a small rock shelter situated in the municipality of Moià (Barcelona, ​​ Spain) at an altitude of 760 m above sea level and 50 km from the current coastline. The levels of occupation in this context are dated between 13,442 cal BP and 9,552 cal BP, being related to the so-denominated “Epimagdalenian” and “Microlaminar Sauveterroid” complexes. The excavations have provided important mollusc samples, both terrestrial and marine, which have been studied and considered alimentary and adornment resources. In this article, we present the results of the use-wear analyses of the shell tools of Mytilus galloprovincialis Lamarck, 1819 and Glycymeris glycymeris (Linnaeus, 1758). The results of these analyses and their comparison with analytical experimentation demonstrate that some of these shells were used as tools for developing diverse productive activities related to the processing of materials of animal, mineral and vegetal origin. In this way, this research contributes to: 1) broaden the technological spectrum registered in this context and in a wider sense for Epipalaeolithic hunter-gatherers (beyond the traditional technological elements), 2) demonstrate a diversified use of the shells as adornments, food and tools in the site; an aspect of great interest especially bearing in mind the distance from the coast.

Special issue Novel Technologies and Solutions for Coastal Evolution and Management.-- 16 pages, 7 figures, 6 tables.-- Data Availability Statement: The results obtained in this study are available on request from the corresponding author, The evaluation of coastal damage caused by storms is not straightforward and different approaches can be applied. In this study, damage caused by extreme storms is evaluated at a regional scale based on news information published in regional newspapers. The data derived from the news are compared with hydrodynamic parameters to check the reliability of this methodology as a preliminary” fast approach” to evaluate storm damage and to identify hotspots along the coast. This methodology was applied to the two most extreme storms ever recorded along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, which occurred in January 2017 and January 2020, severely impacting the coast and causing significant community concerns. The news information from different media sources was processed and weighted to describe the resulting erosion, inundation, sand accumulation, and destruction of infrastructures. Moreover, an accuracy index for scoring the quality of the information was proposed. In spite of some limitations of the method, the resulting regional coastal hazard landscape of damage provides a rapid overview of the intensity and distribution of the damage and enables one to identify the location of potential hotspots for the analyzed extreme storm events. The results show that estimated damage intensity is better related to maximum wave energy than cumulative wave energy during a storm, and that beach characteristics should also be included for understanding the distribution of coastal damage, This work has been done in the framework of the MOCCA research project (RTI2018-093941-B-C32) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, National Agency of Research. This work acknowledges the ‘Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence’ accreditation (CEX2019-000928-S) to ICM-CSIC

There is a lack of knowledge on how tree species respond to climatic constraints like water shortages and related atmospheric patterns across broad spatial and temporal scales. These assessments are needed to project which populations will better tolerate or respond to global warming across the tree species distribution range. Warmer and drier conditions have been forecasted for the Mediterranean Basin, where Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis Mill.) is the most widely distributed conifer in dry sites. This species shows plastic growth responses to climate, being particularly sensitive to drought. We evaluated how 32 Aleppo pine forests responded to climate and atmospheric patterns during the second half of the 20th century by using dendrochronology. Climatic constraints of radial growth were inferred by fitting the Vaganov‒Shashkin (VS-Lite) growth model. Aleppo pine growth decreased and showed the highest common coherence among trees in dry, continental sites, such as those situated in southeastern and eastern inland Spain and Algeria. Growth increased in wetter sites. Tree growth was enhanced by prior wet winter conditions and cool and wet spring conditions, whilst warm summers were associated with decreased growth. The relationships between site ring-width chronologies were spatially structured, which explains why Aleppo pine growth was distinctly linked to indices describing atmospheric circulation patterns, showing a stronger influence in western sites (Western Mediterranean Oscillation and Northern Atlantic Oscillation). The climatic constraints of growth and their biogeographical variability were captured by the VS-Lite model, with better fits in dry and continental sites, showing strong growth coherence between trees and climatic limitations of growth. Further research using similar broad-scale approaches to climate&ndash, growth relationships and in drought-prone regions deserves more attention.

Chlorophyll-a (Chl a) is a key parameter for the assessment of water quality in coastal and shelf environments. The availability of satellite ocean colour offers the potential of monitoring these regions at unprecedented spatial and temporal scales, as long as a high level of accuracy can be achieved. To use satellite derived Chl a to monitor these environments, it is imperative that rigorous accuracy assessments are undertaken to select the most accurate ocean colour algorithm(s). To this end, the accuracy of a range of ocean colour Chl a algorithms for use with Medium Imaging Resolution Spectrometer (MERIS) Level 2 (L2) Remote Sensing Reflectance (R-rs), using two different atmospheric correction (AC) processors (COASTCOLOUR and MERIS Ground Segment processor version 8.0 - MEGS8.0), were assessed in North West European waters. A total of 594 measurements of R-rs(lambda) and/or Chl a were made in the North Sea, Mediterranean Sea, along the Portuguese Coast English Channel and Celtic Sea between June 2001 and March 2012, where Chl a varied from 0.2 to 35 mg m(-3). The following algorithms were compared: MERIS Case 1 water Chl a algorithm OC4Me, the MERIS Case 2 algorithm Algal Pigment 2 (AP2), the MODIS-Aqua Case 1 Chl a algorithm OC3 adapted for MERIS (OC3Me), the MODIS-Aqua Garver-Siegel-Maritorena algorithm (GSM) adapted for MERIS and the Gohin et al. (2002) algorithm for MERIS (005Me). For both COASTCOLOUR and MEGS8.0 processors, OC5Me was the most accurate Chl a algorithm, which was within similar to 25% of in situ values in these coastal and shelf waters. The uncertainty in MEGS8.0 R(rs)4442) (similar to 17%) was slightly higher compared to COASTCOLOUR (similar to 12%) from 0.3 to 7 mg m(-3) Chl a, but for R-rs(560)the uncertainty was lower for MEGS8.0 (similar to 10%) compared to COASTCOLOUR (similar to 13%), which meant that MEGS8.0 Chl a was more accurate than COASTCOLOUR for all of the Chl a algorithms tested. Compared to 005Me, OC4Me tended to over-estimate Chl a, which was caused by non-algal SPM especially at values >14 g M-3. GSM also over-estimated Chl a, which was caused by variations in absorption coefficient of coloured dissolved organic matter at 442 nm (a(CDOM)(442)). AP2 consistently under-estimated Chl a, especially when non-algal SPM was >4 g m(-3). (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Natural Environment Research Council's National Capability - The Western English Channel Observatory (WCO), NEODAAS European Union - INTERREG IVA 2 Mers Seas Zeeen Cross-border Cooperation Programme [07-027-FR-ISECA] European Space Agency [4000113691/15/I-LG] AQUA-USERS project (EU 7th Framework Programme) [607325] Natural Environment Research Council [pml010008, pml010007]

International audience; Platinum (Pt) is considered a Technology Critical Element (TCE) and an emerging metallic contaminant with increasing release into the environment. Gaps in knowledge and understanding of environmental levels, fate and effects of Pt still exist, especially in the marine environment. This work presents Pt concentrations in the northwestern Mediterranean coast including: (i) temporal variability from sediment cores and farmed mussels in the Toulon Bay (historically affected by intense human activities) and (ii) spatial distribution from recent wild mussels collected along ∼ 700 km coastline with contrasting ecosystems (including natural reserves), quantified using voltammetry and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. The historical (>100 years) record of Pt in sediments from the Toulon Bay suggests the existence of non-negligible Pt sources older than those related to vehicle emission devices, such as petrol industry and coal-fired activities. A strong Pt increase in more recent sediments (from ∼12 to 16 ng g−1) and mussels (8-fold increase from ∼0.12 to 0.80 ng g−1) covering the past 25 years reflect the overall evolution of Pt demand in Europe (∼20-fold increase for vehicle catalysts in 20 years). Spatial biomonitoring of Pt in mussels along the northwestern Mediterranean coast is assumed to reflect inter-site differences of Pt exposure (0.09–0.66 ng g−1) despite seasonal effect on tissue development. This study highlights the need for thorough and regular monitoring of Pt levels in sediments and biota from urbanized coastal areas in order to better assess the environmental impact of this TCE, including potential risks for marine organisms. © 2018

In coastal watersheds, services and landuse favour coastal tourism and urbanization, depriving rural upstream of infrastructure and attention. This unbalanced management leads to an intensification of socioeconomic changes that generate a structural heterogeneity of the landscape and a reduction in the livelihoods of the rural population. The incessant dissociation between the objectives of the stakeholders triggers landuse-environment-economy conflicts which threaten to mutate large-scale development programs. Here, we used multi-assessment techniques in a Mediterranean watershed from Morocco to evaluate the effects of landuse change on water, vegetation, and perception of the rural population towards environmental issues. We combined complementary vegetation indexes (NDVI and EVI) to study long-term landuse change and phenological statistical pixel-based trends. We assessed the exposure of rural households to the risk of groundwater pollution through a water analysis supplemented by the calculation of an Integrated Water Quality Index. Later, we contrasted the findings with the results of a social survey with a representative sample of 401 households from 7 villages. We found that rapid coastal linear urbanization has resulted in a 12-fold increase in construction over the past 35 years, to the detriment of natural spaces and the lack of equipment and means in rural areas upstream. We show that the worst water qualities are linked to the negative impact of anthropogenic activities on immediately accessible water points. We observe that rural households are aware of the existence and gravity of environmental issues but act confusedly because of their low education level which generates a weak capacity to understand cause and effect relationships. We anticipate the pressing need to improve the well-being and education of the population and synergistically correct management plans to target the watershed as a consolidated system. Broadly, stakeholders should restore lost territorial harmony and reallocate landuse according to a sustainable environment-socioeconomic vision.

We present and discuss the genesis, age and evolution of indented landforms carved at sea level in correspondence of carbonatic headlands in three sites of the central Mediterranean coasts, between Marseille (France) and Balzi Rossi (Italy), the island of Tavolara (Sardinia, Italy) and the promontory of Tindari (Sicily, Italy). The shape of these anomalous notches landforms can be referred to is very similar to tidal notches, despite their genesis and morphometric parameters are different from those suggested by other Authors for the central Mediterranean area. Two of these sites are located in tectonically stable areas, while the third falls is located in an uplifting area. Those The notches we investigated along the coast of southern France, are submerged notch-type landforms located in the vicinities surroundings of current modern tidal notches. At Tavolara island, these anomalous notches are placed at about 25 m b.s.l. these landforms and have the shape of “mushroom-like notches”. Finally, those investigated along the metamorphic-carbonatic promontory of Tindari, are marine and abrasional notches, that have been uplifted, likely during the Holocene.

Recent events in Western Attica in Greece (24 deaths in November 2017), in the Balearic Islands (13 deaths in October 2018), and in southern France (15 deaths in October 2018) show that flood-related mortality remains a major concern in Mediterranean countries facing flash floods. Over the past several years, many initiatives have arisen to create databases on flood-related mortality. An international initiative started in 2011 pooling regional and national databases on flood mortality from region and/or countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. The MEditerranean Flood Fatality Database (MEFF DB) brings together, in 2018, six Mediterranean regions/countries: Catalonia (Spain), Balearic Islands (Spain), Southern France, Calabria (Italy), Greece, and Turkey, and covers the period 1980&ndash, 2018. MEFF DB is on progress and, every year, new data are included, but for this study, we kept only the preliminary data that were geolocated and validated on 31st of December 2018. This research introduces a new step in the analysis of flood-related mortality and follows the statistical description of the MEFF DB already published. The goals of this paper are to draw the spatial distribution of flood mortality through a geographical information system (GIS) at different spatial scales: country, NUTS 3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. Level 3) regions, catchment areas, and grid. A fatality rate (F: number of deaths/year/million of inhabitants) is created to help this analysis. Then, we try to relate mortality to basic (human or physical) drivers such as population density, rainfall seasonality, or rainfall frequency across the Mediterranean Basin. The mapping of F shows a negative mortality gradient between the western and the eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The south of France appears to be the most affected region. The maps also highlight the seasonality of flood-related deaths with the same west&ndash, east gradient. It confirms that flood mortality follows the climatological seasonal patterns across the Mediterranean Basin. Flood-related fatalities mainly occur during the early fall season in the western part of the Mediterranean area, while the Easter Basin is affected later, in November or during the winter season. Eastern Turkey introduces another pattern, as mortality is more severe in summer. Mortality maps are then compared with factors that potentially contribute to the occurrence of flood fatalities, such as precipitation intensity (rainfall hazard), to explain geographical differences in the fatality rate. The density of a fatal event is correlated to the population density and the rainfall frequency. Conversely, the average number of deaths per event depends on other factors such as prevention or crisis management.

In the present work, the case of the Cármenes del Mar resort (Granada, Spain) is shown. It can be considered one of the most extreme examples on the Mediterranean coast of severe pathologies associated with urban development on coastal landslides. The resort, with 416 dwellings, was partially built on a deep-seated landslide which affects a soft formation composed of dark graphite schists. In November 2015, the City Council officially declared a state of emergency in the resort and 24 dwellings have already been evacuated. We have used two remote sensing techniques to monitor the landslide with the aim of identifying and measuring a wide range of displacements rates (from mm/year to m/year): (1) PSInSAR, exploiting 25 ENVISAT SAR images acquired from May 2003 to December 2009, and (2) photogrammetry, considering the output from two Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flights made in June 2015 and January 2016 and the outdated photos from a conventional flight in 2008. The relationship between the geology of the site, data from PS deformation measurements, building displacements, rainfall and damage observed and their temporal occurrence allows a better understanding of the landslide kinematics and both the spatial and temporal evolution of the instability. Results indicate building displacements of up to 1.92 m in 8 years, a clear lithological control in the spatial distribution of damage and a close relationship between the most damaging events and water recharge episodes (rainy events and leaks from swimming pools and the water supply network). This work emphasises the need to incorporate geohazards into urban planning, including policies to predict, prepare for and prevent this type of phenomenon., Unidad de Granada, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, España, Departamento de Geodinámica, Universidad de Granada, España, Departamento de Ingeniería Cartográfica, Geodesia y Fotogrametría, Universidad de Jaén, España, Geomatics Division, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya, España, Departamento de Ingeniería Civil, Universidad de Granada, España

International audience; The present geomorphology of the Mediterranean's coasts is largely a product of an intricate long-term relationship between Nature and human societies. A cradle of ancient civilisations, the Mediterranean has seen its shores occupied by Humans since Prehistory, and is, therefore, a particularly pertinent unit of analysis. The morphotectonic context and other forcing agents (e.g., climate) shaped out a highly diversified coastal morphology and generated a sediment-supply regime potentially favourable to the formation of numerous open-coast deltas and bay-head deltas in infilled rias as sea level stabilised during the mid-Holocene. This supply of riverine sediment has also been the key agent in mediating human occupation of the Mediterranean's clastic coasts. Expressions of this relationship have been extensively archived in clastic coastal deposits, including base-level deltaic and estuarine sedimentary sinks, which comprise records to explore the interactions between geosystems and the human environment. The stratigraphic sequences in these coastal sedimentary archives comprise, in many places, a clearly identified anthropogenic signature, notably in ancient harbours, some of which underwent extremely rapid silting up due to massive sediment sourcing generated by new agricultural practices from the Neolithic onwards. Increasing human influence, especially over the last 3000 years, has been, in turn, an important driver of changes in sediment supply, strongly modulating deltaic development. Pulses of sediment supply from catchments rendered vulnerable by human perturbations during the Roman period resulted in a new cycle of inception of many other deltas and in rapid delta growth (e.g. the Ebro, the Po, the Arno and the Ombrone). Another progradation dynamic during the Little Ice Age, at a time of strong rural population growth, river discharge increases, technological developments, and urbanisation, further consolidated delta growth. Understanding the life cycle of these deltas since their initial formation is, in turn, key to unravelling the relative role of natural and anthropogenic forcing agents. Rapid climate changes are deemed to have contributed through both the stripping of landscapes rendered fragile by human activities and active fluvial sediment transport to the coast, but disentangling climate change effects from human impacts in the Mediterranean remains a challenge. The patterns of subsequent deltaic growth and delta morphodynamics reflect adaptations to pulsed sediment supply, river discharge variations, the microtidal, fetch-limited context of the Mediterranean, and direct engineering interventions. The progradation dynamic of the Roman period and Little Ice Age contrasts markedly with the situation of common coastal destabilisation over the last two centuries, particularly well documented for the last 50 years. This period has been characterised by reduced sediment flux to base-level geosystems due to catchment reforestation, retenion within reservoirs, fluvial regulation and dredging, resulting in the erosion of deltas and barrier–lagoon and beach–dune systems. Large stretches of shoreline and narrow coastal plains have been massively engineered for coastal defence and protection against erosion, but also for the construction of marinas, leisure harbours and artificial beaches, resulting in the emergence of veritable artificial seafronts. These interventions have, collectively and progressively, raised societies to a pervasive and overarching position in the geomorphic stability–instability of the Mediterranean's coasts, a situation that will be exacerbated by pressures from sea-level rise, paving the way for rampant coastal erosion and delta destruction.

International audience; The Mediterranean coast of Tetouan, south of the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in Morroco, comprises headland-bound beach-dune systems bordering small coastal plains that are increasingly taken up by socio-economic activities and coastal infrastructure essentially related to tourism development. The 35 km shoreline shows a long-term (multi-decadal) erosional trend due jointly to the damming of the small wadis that hitherto supplied sand to the beach-dune system, the construction of leisure harbours that trap sand and act as boundaries to longshore sand redistribution, and continuous direct dune destruction. Over 95% of the coastal dunes on this microtidal coast have now been destroyed by housing and tourism infrastructure, in a national context marked by a total absence of beach-dune management, and inscribed in an antiquated coastal development setback line of only 3 m relative to the high water level. The short-term sediment budgets of two contrasting beach-dune systems were analysed on the basis of digital elevation models obtained from three successive surveys conducted in February and March 2008 in order to document coastal response patterns to storms under the present conditions of sediment budget stress. Ksar Rimal comprises a narrow beach and a virtually completely destroyed dune, and Cabo Negro exhibits a wider beach and a partially degraded dune. The two beach-dune sites showed balanced sediment budgets, and resilience following a succession of a severe storm (maximum significant wave height (Hs) offshore of 4.2 m), a moderate storm (maximum offshore Hs of 2.8 m) and fair-weather conditions (maximum offshore Hs < 1 m). The survey period is, however, too short to identify the imprint of chronic erosion, and at the short timescale of the study, the resilience shown by both beaches may simply imply that they are presently attuned to the current storm regime. Each beach exhibited a specific resilience mode. Ksar Rimal was dominated by changes essentially limited to the steep narrow beach, involving berm erosion and reformation. The mode on Cabo Negro beach involved sand exchange with the subsisting dune. Continuous dune destruction under development pressures and sand-supply deficit from the nearby wadis will, however, definitely be detrimental to both the protective role of dunes against storms and to beach-dune sand exchanges that contribute to the maintenance of a healthy coastal sediment budget. The case of the Tetouan coast is symptomatic of the situation of large portions of the coast of Morocco now under pressure from development, a situation that, unfortunately, mimicks that of many sectors of depositional coasts in the Mediterranean. Mitigation of coastal erosion requires a firm connection between coastal science and management, but also the rapid implementation of measures aimed at restoring the coastal sediment budget and assuring active beach-dune sand exchange.

International audience; UVF may occur in the aquatic environment through two principal sources: direct inputs from recreational activities and indirect wastewater- and river-borne inputs. The aim of this study was to obtain a first overview of levels of three UVF (EHMC, OC and OD-PABA) in coastal areas subjected to river inputs, untreated wastewater discharges and dumpsite leachates. We selected three eastern Mediterranean rivers that have been impacted for decades by untreated wastewater release and collected sediment in the coastal zone during the hot and humid seasons. Western Mediterranean sites receiving treated wastewaters were analyzed for comparison. The results gave an overview of sediment contamination under these two contrasted situations representative of Mediterranean coastal areas without bathing activities. The analysis of the three UVF revealed the ubiquity and high point source contamination by EHMC and OC in transition and coastal zones, with levels as high as 128 ng g−1 d.w. OD-PABA was also frequently detected, but at lower concentrations (

21 pages, 10 figures, 2 tables, Most Mediterranean prodeltas show undulated sediment features on the foresets of their Holocene wedges. These features have been described all along the Mediterranean for the last 30 years and interpreted as either soft sediment deformation and incipient landsliding, and more recently, as sediment transport structures. We perform a review and detailed analysis of these undulated sediment features using ultrahigh-resolution seismic and bathymetric data as well as geotechnical information and hydrodynamic time series and hydrographic transects. In this study we show that the characteristics of the sediment undulations (configuration of the reflections down section and between adjacent undulations and overall morphologic characteristics) are incompatible with a genesis by sediment deformation alone and do not show evidence of sediment deformation in most cases. Various processes in the benthic boundary layer can be invoked to explain the variety of features observed in the numerous areas displaying sediment undulations, This manuscript is a contribution to project E-MARSHAL (IGCP-585) funded by IUGS and UNESCO. The data on the Iberian prodeltas was acquired in the frame of the Spanish project PRODELTA (REN2002-02323). Data for some areas of the continental shelf (Fluvia`-Muga and Ter prodeltas) were acquired by ‘‘Secretaría General del Mar’’ of the Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino’’ and provided free of charge. For the Algerian data we thank captain and crew of R/V L’Atalante (campagne PRISME 2007) and funding from French ANR projects ISIS and DANACOR. Borehole geotechnical data was acquired in the frame EC funded project PROMESS-1 (EVR1-CT-2002-40024). Hydrodynamic transects and instrumented moorings were funded by the Office of Naval Research, NICOP Grant N00014-02-1-0252. The ‘‘Generalitat de Catalunya’’ is acknowledged for support through an excellence research group grant (2009-SGR-146). Seismic Microtechnology is acknowledged for Kingdom Suite educational license grant