Increase in the rate and uniformity of coastline erosion in Arctic Alaska

Jones, Benjamin M.; Arp, C. D.; Jorgenson, M. Torre; Hinkel, Kenneth M.; Schmutz, Joel A.; Flint, Paul L.

doi:10.1029/2008gl036205

Cited by 284 publications

(265 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…In the best-case scenario, rates of erosion compiled at high resolution (less than every 500 m) were used to populate the classification. These rates were extracted from the most recently published datasets, including data from Jorgenson and Brown (2005), Lantuit and Pollard (2008), Solomon (2005), Jones et al (2008Jones et al ( , 2009aJones et al ( , 2009b and Lantuit et al (2010b). They generally use remote sensing imagery from the second half of the twentieth century and sometimes cover over 50 years of coastline evolution.…”

Section: Coastal Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Arctic Coastal Dynamics Database: A New Classification Scheme and Statistics on Arctic Permafrost Coastlines

Lantuit

Overduin

Couture

et al. 2011

Estuaries and Coasts

347

368

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Arctic permafrost coasts are sensitive to changing climate. The lengthening open water season and the increasing open water area are likely to induce greater erosion and threaten community and industry infrastructure as well as dramatically change nutrient pathways in the near-shore zone. The shallow, mediterranean Arctic Ocean is likely to be strongly affected by changes in currently poorly observed arctic coastal dynamics. We present a geomorphological classification scheme for the arctic coast, with 101,447 km of coastline in 1,315 segments. The average rate of erosion for the arctic coast is 0.5 m year −1 with high local and regional variability. Highest rates are observed in the Laptev, East Siberian, and Beaufort Seas. Strong spatial variability in associated database bluff height, ground carbon and ice content, and coastline movement highlights the need to estimate the relative importance of shifting coastal fluxes to the Arctic Ocean at multiple spatial scales.

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Section: Coastal Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Arctic Coastal Dynamics Database: A New Classification Scheme and Statistics on Arctic Permafrost Coastlines

Lantuit

Overduin

Couture

et al. 2011

Estuaries and Coasts

347

368

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“…They find that, after increasing slightly over the last 5 decades, annual erosion accelerated abruptly and almost doubled, reaching −13.8 m a −1 from 2007 to 2009. They attribute this increase to more frequent block failure as a consequence of higher sea surface temperatures and longer fetch, which potentially create more erosionally effective storm events (Jones et al, 2009b). Lantuit et al (2011b) study storm climatology and use a set of aerial photographs and satellite images to investigate erosion rates around the entire Bykovsky Peninsula near Tiksi in the Laptev Sea over six consecutive time periods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observing Muostakh disappear: permafrost thaw subsidence and erosion of a ground-ice-rich island in response to arctic summer warming and sea ice reduction

Günther

Overduin

Yakshina³

et al. 2015

The Cryosphere

167

172

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Abstract.Observations of coastline retreat using contemporary very high resolution satellite and historical aerial imagery were compared to measurements of open water fraction, summer air temperature, and wind. We analysed seasonal and interannual variations of thawing-induced cliff top retreat (thermo-denudation) and marine abrasion (thermoabrasion) on Muostakh Island in the southern central Laptev Sea. Geomorphometric analysis revealed that total ground ice content on Muostakh is made up of equal amounts of intrasedimentary and macro ground ice and sums up to 87 %, rendering the island particularly susceptible to erosion along the coast, resulting in land loss. Based on topographic reference measurements during field campaigns, we generated digital elevation models using stereophotogrammetry, in order to block-adjust and orthorectify aerial photographs from 1951 and GeoEye, QuickBird, WorldView-1, and WorldView-2 imagery from 2010 to 2013 for change detection. Using sea ice concentration data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and air temperature time series from nearby Tiksi, we calculated the seasonal duration available for thermo-abrasion, expressed as open water days, and for thermo-denudation, based on the number of days with positive mean daily temperatures. Seasonal dynamics of cliff top retreat revealed rapid thermo-denudation rates of −10.2 ± 4.5 m a −1 in mid-summer and thermo-abrasion rates along the coastline of −3.4 ± 2.7 m a −1 on average during the 2010-2013 observation period, currently almost twice as rapid as the mean rate of −1.8 ± 1.3 m a −1 since 1951. Our results showed a close relationship between mean summer air temperature and coastal thermo-erosion rates, in agreement with observations made for various permafrost coastlines different to the East Siberian Ice Complex coasts elsewhere in the Arctic. Seasonality of coastline retreat and interannual variations of environmental factors suggest that an increasing length of thermo-denudation and thermo-abrasion process simultaneity favours greater coastal erosion. Coastal thermoerosion has reduced the island's area by 0.9 km 2 (24 %) over the past 62 years but shrank its volume by 28 × 10 6 m 3 (40 %), not least because of permafrost thaw subsidence, with the most pronounced with rates of ≥ −11 cm a −1 on yedoma uplands near the island's rapidly eroding northern cape. Recent acceleration in both will halve Muostakh Island's lifetime to less than a century.

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“…Lake area has increased through shore erosion and decreased from drainage associated with permafrost degradation , evaporative loss and paludification (Roach et al 2011). Storm surges enhanced by sea-ice retreat have led to increased coastal erosion and salinization (Jones et al 2009). Glacier melting has exposed new barren alpine areas subject to primary succession (Arendt et al 2009) and affected the geomorphology of glacier-fed river systems (Moore et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Projected changes in diverse ecosystems from climate warming and biophysical drivers in northwest Alaska

Jorgenson¹,

Marcot

Swanson

et al. 2015

Climatic Change

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Climate warming affects arctic and boreal ecosystems by interacting with numerous biophysical factors across heterogeneous landscapes. To assess potential effects of warming on diverse local-scale ecosystems (ecotypes) across northwest Alaska, we compiled data on historical areal changes over the last 25-50 years. Based on historical rates of change relative to time and temperature, we developed three state-transition models to project future changes in area for 60 ecotypes involving 243 potential transitions during three 30-year periods (ending 2040, 2070, 2100). The time model, assuming changes over the past 30 years continue at the same rate, projected a net change, or directional shift, of 6 % by 2100. The temperature model, using past rates of change relative to the past increase in regional mean annual air temperatures (1°C/30 year), projected a net change of 17 % in response to expected warming of 2, 4, and 6°C at the end of the three periods. A rate-adjusted temperature model, which adjusted transition rates (±50 %) based on assigned feedbacks associated with 23 biophysical drivers, estimated a net change of 13 %, with 33 ecotypes gaining and 23 ecotypes losing area. Major drivers included shrub and tree expansion, fire, succession, and thermokarst. Overall, projected A. R. DeGange Alaska Climate Science Center, U. S. Geological Survey, 4210 University Drive, Anchorage, AK 99508, USA changes will be modest over the next century even though climate warming increased transition rates up to 9 fold. The strength of this state-transition modeling is that it used a large dataset of past changes to provide a comprehensive assessment of likely future changes associated with numerous drivers affecting the full diversity of ecosystems across a broad region.

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Increase in the rate and uniformity of coastline erosion in Arctic Alaska

Cited by 284 publications

References 19 publications

The Arctic Coastal Dynamics Database: A New Classification Scheme and Statistics on Arctic Permafrost Coastlines

The Arctic Coastal Dynamics Database: A New Classification Scheme and Statistics on Arctic Permafrost Coastlines

Observing Muostakh disappear: permafrost thaw subsidence and erosion of a ground-ice-rich island in response to arctic summer warming and sea ice reduction

Projected changes in diverse ecosystems from climate warming and biophysical drivers in northwest Alaska

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