Congress «Out of the map: Local Geographies of a Mediterranean island». Workshop: Salt marshes and brackish ecosystems.
Organized by:
Yiorgos Kyriazis (workshop leader) & Christina Kontaxi (workshop assistant)
With:
1. Tobias Umlauft EGEA LEIPZIG
2. Alexsandra Privsek EGEA LJUBLJANA
3. Maja Walczak EGEA WARSAW
4. Karsten Schacht EGEA MUENSTER
5. Bibisidoy Katerina EGEA SALONICA
SALINAS & SALTWORKS
Salinas Operation Principles
• Seawater as the primary material
• Earth, in the form of the impermeable clay soil on which the water is held
• Solar energy
• Wind energy
Resulting in:
• Evaporation of the sea water
• Crystallization of the salt
Required natural features
1. A large littoral expanse of relatively flat land characterized by virtually impermeable soil
2. Weather favoring negative water balance (High rates of evaporation, minimal rainfall while the salt is being produced)
Mediterranean Salinas classification
- primitive or artisanal salinas, in which salt is gained with little or no human intervention, mainly collected from nature (e.g. rocky coasts, closed lagoons etc).
- traditional salinas, comprising small compartments and crystallizers that can be efficiently operated by one or two persons. They are characterized by intense human presence in all stages of salt-making.
- semi-industrial salinas (rather saltworks), with relatively large compartments and crystallizers. They are still characterized by involvement of man and are manually operated at least for salt harvest.
- fully mechanized huge industrial saltworks, with almost no manual operation, that are extremely large and economically profitable.
Fully mechanized saltworks
• Saltpans in serial connection (salt is concentrated to saturation in successive basins)
• Crystalizers (rectangular flat basins where the saturated brine is introduced periodically and deposits on the bottom a layer of salt 8 to 17cm thick)
• Reservoirs (brine storage against rainfall)
• Pumping stations (brine transfer)
• Canals, gates, small bridges (control of the flow of brine)
• Equipment for harvesting, transporting, washing and storing the salt.
• Weather station
• Chemistry laboratory (quality control)
Greek Salinas
1. Messi Rodopi (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
2. Kesani – Xanthi (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
3. M.Emvolo – Thessaloniki (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
4. Kitros Pieria (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
5. Lefkimmi – Kerkyra (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
6. Kopraena – Arta (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
7. Alexandros – Lefkas (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
8. Messolonghi (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
9. Tourlis (saltworks belonging to local authorities)
10. Lehaena – Ilia (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
11. Katastari – Zakynthos (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
12. Kopanas – Evia (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
13. Anavyssos – Attiki (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
14. Lemnos (saltworks under construction)
15. Kalloni - Lesvos (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
16. Polichnitos – Lesvos (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
17. Samos (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
18. Adamas – Milos (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
19. Tigaki – Kos (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
20. Kythira (saltworks belonging to local authorities)
Greek Saltworks: expansion and potential
Messolonghi: surface 1,162 (hectares) – potential 120,000 (metric tons)
Kitros Pieria: surface 362 (hectares) – potential 40,000 (metric tons)
Kalloni – Lesvos: surface 263 (hectares) – potential 40,000 (metric tons)
Polichnitos – Lesvos: surface 60 (hectares) – potential 10,000 (metric tons)
Messi Rodopi: surface 140 (hectares) – potential 15,000 (metric tons)
N.Kesani – Xanthi: surface 90 (hectares) – potential 5,000 (metric tons)
M.Emvolo – Thessaloniki: surface 105 (hectares) – potential 5,000 (metric tons)
Adamas – Milos: surface 50 (hectares) – potential 8,000 (metric tons)
FIND MORE: ALAS (ALl About Salt) http://www.aegean.gr/alas/
LESVOS
Lesvos is the third largest of the Greek Islands. The island comprises 1632 km2, with a maximum length of 70 km and width of 45 km. The island is closer to the Turkish mainland than the Greek mainland, being only 14 km west of Turkey across the Aegean Sea. There is a general ginko leaf-like appearance to the island of Lesvos. This appearance derives from the two gulfs, which divide the island into three unequal parts (Gulf of Yera, in the east & Gulf of Kalloni, in the west). The gulfs are, in all likelihood, a product of local response, in the form of grabens, to regional tectonism.
The compound interaction of the closing of the Mediterranean in the north–south direction and the westward movement of Anatolia Turkey has contributed to the production, as well as uplift and exposure of metamorphosed rocks. Extrusive igneous materials overlie these, in turn. The rocks have also been subjected to lateral motion that produced low angle faults. Regional crustal uplift and tension produced a series of horsts and grabens bounded by near vertical faults. The subduction and collision has caused deformation, metamorphism, and overthrusting with the superposition of multiple convergent events. Crustal extension formed grabens, which are associated regionally with numerous hot springs and extrusive lava flows. Two major sets of lineaments: one NE–SW and the other, NW–SE. The dip-direction of these faults suggests that northeast to southwest tension produced the grabens oriented NW–SE, and the faults oriented NW–SE were produced by northeast to southwest tension. In the central part of the island there is a series of volcanic centres, situated along a SW-NE direction.
Lesvos suffered at least three post-volcanic tectonic events since Miocene. The first one produced E-W to ENE-WSW trending sinistral strike-slip faults in Late Miocene. The second during Pliocene, caused NW-SE trending normal faults and NNE-SSW trending sinistral strike-slip faults. The third during Pleistocene produced the orientation of the strain ellipsoid changed and an extentional event in the N-S direction took place. It produced E-W trending normal faults ant the reactivation of the pre-existing structures. This tectonic regime seems to be still active in the area. The intense volcanic activity in the area left a large number of active surface thermal manifestations (hot springs, various geothermal fields, etc).
The geological structure of Lesvos island consists of the following rock-units:
-An autochthonous unit of Permo-Triassic age, including schists, quartzites, metasandstones, phyllites and intercalation of marbles and crystalline carbonates, widely extended on the Southeast part of the island. - An ophiolitic nape, comprising basic and ultrabasic rocks and associated deep-sea fine-grained sediments, as well as metamorphic rocks, amphibolites and amphibole schists, metabasites and metasediments, parts of the sole, overthrusted the metamorphic basement.All these alpidic and pre-alpidic rocks were covered later by post-alpine volcanic rocks and Neogene marine and lacustrine deposits such as whitish marls, marly limestone, silts and sandstone, as well as Tertiary deposits.-Neogene volcanic rocks in the central and western part of the island. Lesvos is part of a belt of late Oligocene - middle Miocene calc-alcaline to shoshonitic volcanism of the northern and central Aegean Sea and western Anatolia.
The climate of Lesvos is dry to semi dry and is temperate-Mediterreranean. It has strong spatial and seasonal variations in rainfall and high oscillations between minimum and maximum daily temperatures.1) a hot dry summer period from April to October with a mean temperature of 26.1°C, and total rainfall of 14.7 mm2) a cool-wet winter period from November to March with a mean temperture of 10.4°C. Rainfall is concentrated in this period with a peak of 152 mm in December. The average annual rainfall fluctuates from 725 mm in the eastern part of the island to only 415 in the western part. An intermediate semi-arid region can also be distinguished.The long-term rainfall records in Mytilene show a decrease in rainfall of about 35% in the last 20 years.
The island is interspersed with plains, though it is dominated by mountains (two major peaks are Mt. Olympus 968m and Mt. Lepetimnos 968m)
Topography
Very steep (slope>35%) 43.9%Steep (slope 25-35%) 10.2%Moderately steep (slope>18-25%) 13.1%Moderately sloping and strongly sloping soils 17.5%Nearly level to gently sloping soils 15.3%
18% of the island is cultivated
Land use changes in recent years include:
-Agricultural land becoming pasture-Abandonment of annual crops, mainly legumes and cereals, especially in teracces -Abandonment of perrenial trees as almonds, and figs -Abandonment of olive cultivation in big slopes, this area became pasture-Reducing the oak trees because of overgrazing
Cultivated land consists mainly of olive plantations, but also annual crops. Pastures contain trees (both decidous and conifer), to provide necessary shadow. Forests are made up of pines. The area covered with water is a wetland, and thus an important ecosystem with respect to biodiversity.
The main crop is olive trees, and farms are very small in Lesvos.
KALLONI GULF
The gulf is a closed, shallow bay (20 km long, 10 km wide, average depth 10 m) connected to the open Aegean Sea through a 4 km-long narrow channel.
The surface of Kalloni gulf is 110 km2 and the total water volume is 1,3 km3.
The water mass circulation inside the bay is wind driven. The renewal rate of water masses in the semi-enclosed coastal ecosystems controls the presence and distribution of the marine organisms.
The water exchange between semi-enclosed marine areas and the open sea enhance the results of the inflow of agricultural leaching and urban wastes.
Total catchment's area = 270km2
Total surface area of the gulf = 115km2
Total surface of fields = 30km2
The rest is mountains (mainly north-northwest part)
West: maximum height 650-700m
East: maximum height 350 m
Geology
Eastern part: ophiolitic nape
Western part: Neogene volcanic rocks
North and northeast: alluvial and coastal processes
All the rivers of the area ‘follow’ the direction of lineaments. Most important being ‘Tsiknias’ and ‘Mylopotamos’
East side
Nyfida bay – river/stream ‘Lagkada’
Polychnitos and Polychnitos saltmarshes – rivers ‘Lounta’, ‘Makri’ and ‘Vouvari’
Low wave action- river/stream dominate
Swamp/Salinas: Skala Polychnitos and Vouvari
North side
Alluvial field of kalloni
Rivers: ‘Kryoneri’ eastwards, ‘Tsiknias’, ‘Mylopotamos’ and ‘Potamia’ westwards
Sandbars W-E because of the general water circulation
West side
Rocky beaches (Neogene volcanic rocks)
Exception deltaic plane of Parakoila and in the SW
Most important: Kalloni wetland
The Kalloni wetland extends over a large part (<50%)>http://www.aegean.gr/egeamytilene/congress.htm
EGEA Tartu: http://www.egea.ee/congress/?teema=kongr&keel=eng&id=39
Info from participants:
Croatia – County of Zadar – Tourist Association http://www.zadar.hr/
Slovenia – Tourist Board http://www.slovenia-tourism.si/ & Ljubljana http://www.ljubljana.si/
Selected bibliography in English
Salinas Operation Principles
• Seawater as the primary material
• Earth, in the form of the impermeable clay soil on which the water is held
• Solar energy
• Wind energy
Resulting in:
• Evaporation of the sea water
• Crystallization of the salt
Required natural features
1. A large littoral expanse of relatively flat land characterized by virtually impermeable soil
2. Weather favoring negative water balance (High rates of evaporation, minimal rainfall while the salt is being produced)
Mediterranean Salinas classification
- primitive or artisanal salinas, in which salt is gained with little or no human intervention, mainly collected from nature (e.g. rocky coasts, closed lagoons etc).
- traditional salinas, comprising small compartments and crystallizers that can be efficiently operated by one or two persons. They are characterized by intense human presence in all stages of salt-making.
- semi-industrial salinas (rather saltworks), with relatively large compartments and crystallizers. They are still characterized by involvement of man and are manually operated at least for salt harvest.
- fully mechanized huge industrial saltworks, with almost no manual operation, that are extremely large and economically profitable.
Fully mechanized saltworks
• Saltpans in serial connection (salt is concentrated to saturation in successive basins)
• Crystalizers (rectangular flat basins where the saturated brine is introduced periodically and deposits on the bottom a layer of salt 8 to 17cm thick)
• Reservoirs (brine storage against rainfall)
• Pumping stations (brine transfer)
• Canals, gates, small bridges (control of the flow of brine)
• Equipment for harvesting, transporting, washing and storing the salt.
• Weather station
• Chemistry laboratory (quality control)
Greek Salinas
1. Messi Rodopi (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
2. Kesani – Xanthi (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
3. M.Emvolo – Thessaloniki (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
4. Kitros Pieria (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
5. Lefkimmi – Kerkyra (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
6. Kopraena – Arta (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
7. Alexandros – Lefkas (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
8. Messolonghi (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
9. Tourlis (saltworks belonging to local authorities)
10. Lehaena – Ilia (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
11. Katastari – Zakynthos (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
12. Kopanas – Evia (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
13. Anavyssos – Attiki (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
14. Lemnos (saltworks under construction)
15. Kalloni - Lesvos (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
16. Polichnitos – Lesvos (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
17. Samos (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
18. Adamas – Milos (saltworks belonging to Hellenic Saltworks SA)
19. Tigaki – Kos (dormant saltworks owned by the Greek State)
20. Kythira (saltworks belonging to local authorities)
Greek Saltworks: expansion and potential
Messolonghi: surface 1,162 (hectares) – potential 120,000 (metric tons)
Kitros Pieria: surface 362 (hectares) – potential 40,000 (metric tons)
Kalloni – Lesvos: surface 263 (hectares) – potential 40,000 (metric tons)
Polichnitos – Lesvos: surface 60 (hectares) – potential 10,000 (metric tons)
Messi Rodopi: surface 140 (hectares) – potential 15,000 (metric tons)
N.Kesani – Xanthi: surface 90 (hectares) – potential 5,000 (metric tons)
M.Emvolo – Thessaloniki: surface 105 (hectares) – potential 5,000 (metric tons)
Adamas – Milos: surface 50 (hectares) – potential 8,000 (metric tons)
FIND MORE: ALAS (ALl About Salt) http://www.aegean.gr/alas/
LESVOS
Lesvos is the third largest of the Greek Islands. The island comprises 1632 km2, with a maximum length of 70 km and width of 45 km. The island is closer to the Turkish mainland than the Greek mainland, being only 14 km west of Turkey across the Aegean Sea. There is a general ginko leaf-like appearance to the island of Lesvos. This appearance derives from the two gulfs, which divide the island into three unequal parts (Gulf of Yera, in the east & Gulf of Kalloni, in the west). The gulfs are, in all likelihood, a product of local response, in the form of grabens, to regional tectonism.
The compound interaction of the closing of the Mediterranean in the north–south direction and the westward movement of Anatolia Turkey has contributed to the production, as well as uplift and exposure of metamorphosed rocks. Extrusive igneous materials overlie these, in turn. The rocks have also been subjected to lateral motion that produced low angle faults. Regional crustal uplift and tension produced a series of horsts and grabens bounded by near vertical faults. The subduction and collision has caused deformation, metamorphism, and overthrusting with the superposition of multiple convergent events. Crustal extension formed grabens, which are associated regionally with numerous hot springs and extrusive lava flows. Two major sets of lineaments: one NE–SW and the other, NW–SE. The dip-direction of these faults suggests that northeast to southwest tension produced the grabens oriented NW–SE, and the faults oriented NW–SE were produced by northeast to southwest tension. In the central part of the island there is a series of volcanic centres, situated along a SW-NE direction.
Lesvos suffered at least three post-volcanic tectonic events since Miocene. The first one produced E-W to ENE-WSW trending sinistral strike-slip faults in Late Miocene. The second during Pliocene, caused NW-SE trending normal faults and NNE-SSW trending sinistral strike-slip faults. The third during Pleistocene produced the orientation of the strain ellipsoid changed and an extentional event in the N-S direction took place. It produced E-W trending normal faults ant the reactivation of the pre-existing structures. This tectonic regime seems to be still active in the area. The intense volcanic activity in the area left a large number of active surface thermal manifestations (hot springs, various geothermal fields, etc).
The geological structure of Lesvos island consists of the following rock-units:
-An autochthonous unit of Permo-Triassic age, including schists, quartzites, metasandstones, phyllites and intercalation of marbles and crystalline carbonates, widely extended on the Southeast part of the island. - An ophiolitic nape, comprising basic and ultrabasic rocks and associated deep-sea fine-grained sediments, as well as metamorphic rocks, amphibolites and amphibole schists, metabasites and metasediments, parts of the sole, overthrusted the metamorphic basement.All these alpidic and pre-alpidic rocks were covered later by post-alpine volcanic rocks and Neogene marine and lacustrine deposits such as whitish marls, marly limestone, silts and sandstone, as well as Tertiary deposits.-Neogene volcanic rocks in the central and western part of the island. Lesvos is part of a belt of late Oligocene - middle Miocene calc-alcaline to shoshonitic volcanism of the northern and central Aegean Sea and western Anatolia.
The climate of Lesvos is dry to semi dry and is temperate-Mediterreranean. It has strong spatial and seasonal variations in rainfall and high oscillations between minimum and maximum daily temperatures.1) a hot dry summer period from April to October with a mean temperature of 26.1°C, and total rainfall of 14.7 mm2) a cool-wet winter period from November to March with a mean temperture of 10.4°C. Rainfall is concentrated in this period with a peak of 152 mm in December. The average annual rainfall fluctuates from 725 mm in the eastern part of the island to only 415 in the western part. An intermediate semi-arid region can also be distinguished.The long-term rainfall records in Mytilene show a decrease in rainfall of about 35% in the last 20 years.
The island is interspersed with plains, though it is dominated by mountains (two major peaks are Mt. Olympus 968m and Mt. Lepetimnos 968m)
Topography
Very steep (slope>35%) 43.9%Steep (slope 25-35%) 10.2%Moderately steep (slope>18-25%) 13.1%Moderately sloping and strongly sloping soils 17.5%Nearly level to gently sloping soils 15.3%
18% of the island is cultivated
Land use changes in recent years include:
-Agricultural land becoming pasture-Abandonment of annual crops, mainly legumes and cereals, especially in teracces -Abandonment of perrenial trees as almonds, and figs -Abandonment of olive cultivation in big slopes, this area became pasture-Reducing the oak trees because of overgrazing
Cultivated land consists mainly of olive plantations, but also annual crops. Pastures contain trees (both decidous and conifer), to provide necessary shadow. Forests are made up of pines. The area covered with water is a wetland, and thus an important ecosystem with respect to biodiversity.
The main crop is olive trees, and farms are very small in Lesvos.
KALLONI GULF
The gulf is a closed, shallow bay (20 km long, 10 km wide, average depth 10 m) connected to the open Aegean Sea through a 4 km-long narrow channel.
The surface of Kalloni gulf is 110 km2 and the total water volume is 1,3 km3.
The water mass circulation inside the bay is wind driven. The renewal rate of water masses in the semi-enclosed coastal ecosystems controls the presence and distribution of the marine organisms.
The water exchange between semi-enclosed marine areas and the open sea enhance the results of the inflow of agricultural leaching and urban wastes.
Total catchment's area = 270km2
Total surface area of the gulf = 115km2
Total surface of fields = 30km2
The rest is mountains (mainly north-northwest part)
West: maximum height 650-700m
East: maximum height 350 m
Geology
Eastern part: ophiolitic nape
Western part: Neogene volcanic rocks
North and northeast: alluvial and coastal processes
All the rivers of the area ‘follow’ the direction of lineaments. Most important being ‘Tsiknias’ and ‘Mylopotamos’
East side
Nyfida bay – river/stream ‘Lagkada’
Polychnitos and Polychnitos saltmarshes – rivers ‘Lounta’, ‘Makri’ and ‘Vouvari’
Low wave action- river/stream dominate
Swamp/Salinas: Skala Polychnitos and Vouvari
North side
Alluvial field of kalloni
Rivers: ‘Kryoneri’ eastwards, ‘Tsiknias’, ‘Mylopotamos’ and ‘Potamia’ westwards
Sandbars W-E because of the general water circulation
West side
Rocky beaches (Neogene volcanic rocks)
Exception deltaic plane of Parakoila and in the SW
Most important: Kalloni wetland
The Kalloni wetland extends over a large part (<50%)>http://www.aegean.gr/egeamytilene/congress.htm
EGEA Tartu: http://www.egea.ee/congress/?teema=kongr&keel=eng&id=39
Info from participants:
Croatia – County of Zadar – Tourist Association http://www.zadar.hr/
Slovenia – Tourist Board http://www.slovenia-tourism.si/ & Ljubljana http://www.ljubljana.si/
Selected bibliography in English
-Davis, J.S., 2000. Structure, function, and management of the biological system for seasonal solar saltworks. International Journal Global Nest, Vol. 2, No 3, 217-226pp (http://www.gnest.org/Journal/Vol2_No3/davis.pdf).
-Kontogianni, A., Skourtos, M.S., Langford, I.H., Bateman, I.J. & S. Georgiou, 2001. Integrating stakeholder analysis in non-market valuation of environmental assets. Ecological Economics, Vol. 37, Issue 1, 123-138pp. -Novak, I. D. & N. Soulakellis, 2000. Identifying geomorphic features using LANDSAT-5/TM data processing techniques on Lesvos, Greece. Geomorphology, Vol. 34, Issues 1-2, 101-109pp.
-Panayotidis P., Feretopoulou J. & B. Montesanto, 1999. Benthic Vegetation as an Ecological Quality Descriptor in an Eastern Mediterranean Coastal Area (Kalloni Bay, Aegean Sea, Greece). Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Vol. 48, Issue 2, 205-214pp.
-Skourtos M.S., Kontogianni, A., Langford, I.H., Bateman, I.J. & S. Georgiou, Integrating stakeholder analysis in non-market valuation of environmental assets, CSERGE Working Paper GEC 2000-22 (http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/publications/wp/gec/gec2000_22.pdf).
-Kontogianni, A., Skourtos, M.S., Langford, I.H., Bateman, I.J. & S. Georgiou, 2001. Integrating stakeholder analysis in non-market valuation of environmental assets. Ecological Economics, Vol. 37, Issue 1, 123-138pp. -Novak, I. D. & N. Soulakellis, 2000. Identifying geomorphic features using LANDSAT-5/TM data processing techniques on Lesvos, Greece. Geomorphology, Vol. 34, Issues 1-2, 101-109pp.
-Panayotidis P., Feretopoulou J. & B. Montesanto, 1999. Benthic Vegetation as an Ecological Quality Descriptor in an Eastern Mediterranean Coastal Area (Kalloni Bay, Aegean Sea, Greece). Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, Vol. 48, Issue 2, 205-214pp.
-Skourtos M.S., Kontogianni, A., Langford, I.H., Bateman, I.J. & S. Georgiou, Integrating stakeholder analysis in non-market valuation of environmental assets, CSERGE Working Paper GEC 2000-22 (http://www.uea.ac.uk/env/cserge/publications/wp/gec/gec2000_22.pdf).
