The Arctic land-ocean transition. Permafrost in river delta and shelf regions of the Arctic
Matthias Fuchs#*1, Paul Mann2, Gerald V. Frost3
1. Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany, matthias.fuchs@awi.de
2. Northumbria University, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, UK, paul.mann@northumbria.ac.uk
3. ABR, Inc. – Environmental Research & Services, Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, jfrost@abrinc.com
* PYRN Member # session organizer and corresponding author
Session description (250 word maximum in English):
The interface of Arctic lands and seas encompasses sensitive permafrost environments that face a wide range of potentially severe changes stemming from global climate change and thawing permafrost. Arctic deltas and shelves are intrinsically dynamic settings that host a wide range of processes (e.g. coastal and shoreline erosion, thermokarst, inundation, slumping) and periglacial features (e.g. ice- and carbon-rich deposits, thermokarst lakes, subsea permafrost) that will face rapid changes with a warming climate. Increased freshwater discharge, coastal erosion, retreating sea-ice, changing river discharge, and sea-level rise will dramatically affect surface and subsurface processes within Arctic deltas and continental shelf regions and pose hazards to many coastal communities. Yet, large uncertainties exist concerning system properties and responses to a changing climate. For example, nutrient fluxes from land to ocean are a critical component of global biogeochemical cycles, but are poorly constrained in Arctic regions. A better understanding of the surface morphology and the sedimentary composition of deep permafrost deposits is needed to address this and many other knowledge gaps.
This session invites studies from a wide range of fields (geomorphology, biogeochemistry, hydrology, biology) and applied methods (field campaigns, remote sensing, GIS and model applications) dealing with processes along the land-ocean transition. In particular contributions about Arctic river deltas and shelf regions are welcomed to gain a better understanding of the Arctic land-ocean transition and its biogeochemical impact on the Arctic permafrost region.
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