Comment on “Relevant Length Scale of Barchan Dunes”

On the crescentic shape of barchan dunes

Aeolian sand dunes originate from wind flow and sand bed interactions. According to wind properties and sand availability, they can adopt different shapes, ranging from huge motion-less star dunes to small and mobile barchan dunes. The latter are crescentic and emerge under a unidirectional wind, with a low sand supply. Here, a 3d model for barchan based on existing 2d model is proposed. After ...

On the shape of barchan dunes

Barchans are crescent-shaped sand dunes forming in aride regions with unidirectional wind and limited sand supply. We report analytical and numerical results for dune shapes under different environmental conditions as obtained from the so-called ‘minimal model’ of aeolian sand dunes. The profiles of longitudinal vertical slices (i.e. along the wind direction) are analyzed as a function of wind ...

Microbial Characterization of Qatari Barchan Sand Dunes

This study represents the first characterization of sand microbiota in migrating barchan sand dunes. Bacterial communities were studied through direct counts and cultivation, as well as 16S rRNA gene and metagenomic sequence analysis to gain an understanding of microbial abundance, diversity, and potential metabolic capabilities. Direct on-grain cell counts gave an average of 5.3 ± 0.4 x 105 ce...

Vegetated dunes and barchan dune fields

A continuous model for sand dunes: Review, new developments and application to barchan dunes and barchan dune fields

Basically, sand dunes are patterns resulting from the coupling of hydrodynamic and sediment transport. Once grains move, they modify the surface topography which in turns modifies the flow. This important feedback mechanism lies at the core of continuous dune modelling. Here we present an updated review of such a model for aeolian dunes, including important modifications to improve its predicti...