Quaternary

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue will focus on the best practice and prospects in coastal environmental reconstruction. Coastal environments include highly sensitive depositional systems and may, therefore, record the main morpho-climatic variations, reflecting depositional systems. Besides the natural control factors, the coastal areas have recorded the impact of the human settlement on the depositional environments. The sedimentary record and the related coastal geomorphologic modification may control the shifting of the coastal and marine facies during relative sea level fluctuations.

We welcome you to submit a paper to the Special Issue “Best Practice and Future Prospects in Coastal Environmental Reconstruction”, including main issues on seismic and sequence stratigraphy in coastal environments, facies analysis of coastal sequences, marine micropaleontology, coastal vulnerability and coastal hazard through GIS methodologies, and micropaleontological and sedimentological reconstruction of coastal environments, also in the Late Holocene. Geoarcheological issues are also welcome. High-resolution chronostratigraphic research, focusing on tephrostratigraphy, is also invited

Best regards,

Dr. Gemma Aiello
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Quaternary is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

coastal environments
marine depositional systems
facies analysis
seismic and sequence stratigraphy
sedimentary record
human settlements
geoarcheology
coastal hazard
GIS studies in coastal areas
micropaleontology
sedimentology
tephrostratigraphy

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

17 pages, 4304 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Past and Present Drivers of Karst Formation of Ciénega de El Mangle, Panama

by Jaime Rivera-Solís, Adolfo Quesada-Román and Fran Domazetović

Quaternary 2023, 6(4), 58; https://doi.org/10.3390/quat6040058 - 29 Nov 2023

Viewed by 1367

Abstract

Tropical coastal karst areas represent dynamic, fragile, and biodiverse environments. Central America’s karst regions have been scarcely studied, with most of the research focused on the northern part of the region and on several larger cave systems. The coastal carbonate zones of the Central American region represent a unique karstic landscape, which, so far, has been insufficiently studied. Therefore, in this paper, we aim to describe the (i) landscape geomorphology and (ii) chemical conditions that define Ciénega de El Mangle in Panama as a distinctive karstic site. Carried geomorphological mapping and the characterization of karstic features have resulted in the identification of the different karstic forms and processes that are present within this unique karstic area. Considering that the chosen karstic study area is located in a marine–coastal fringe on the periphery of a lagoon, it is affected by a combination of several factors and processes, including seawater intrusion (through sinkholes), the formation of conchiferous limestone (CaCO₃), and NaCl precipitation related to efflorescence. Due to the seasonally humid tropical climate, the chemical weathering processes are intense, thus forming alkaline soils that are hindering the development of mangrove vegetation. The geomorphology of the area results from intense evaporation combined with an influx of brackish groundwater, due to which a landscape has evolved in the marine–coastal strips, of seasonal tropical climates, that exhibit saline beaches, known as a littoral shott. In total, 24 karstic microdolines have evolved within the shott, of which six represent domical geoforms formed by gradual evaporitic precipitation, while seven other geoforms represent active karstic sinkholes filled with brackish water. These results are key for understanding the past and present climate interactions and conditions that have led to the formation of tropical karst environments. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Past Practice and Future Prospects in Coastal Environmental Reconstructions)

► Show Figures

Figure 1

Journal Menu

Journal Browser

Past Practice and Future Prospects in Coastal Environmental Reconstructions

Share This Special Issue

Special Issue Editor

Special Issue Information

Keywords

Published Papers (1 paper)

Research

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI