Coastal erosion contribution to carbon flux in Kara Sea at Kharasavey area, West Yamal Peninsula

• Main Authors: Belova, N., Overduin, Pier Paul, Ogorodov, S., Arkhipov, V., Kuznetsov, D., Noskov, A.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: Kara Sea; Yamal Peninsula; Kharasavey; Polar Science
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/22766/; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.35465

Coastal dynamics were observed near the Kharasavey settlement on the Yamal Peninsula during the summer of 2008, adding an additional year of data to an existing long-term record. Here stationary observations are conducted along a 21 km section of the coastline from Cape Kharasavey to Cape Burunniy. The northern half of this section is relatively stable, while the southern half was observed to be retreating. Observations were carried out using repeated geodetic surveying from 33 benchmarks which were set up in 1981. The rate of bluff erosion was measured in both natural and human influenced environments. In total, data on coastal erosion have been collected for an extensive coastal section of the Yamal Peninsula over a long time period (1981-2008 yrs). Using these data, we estimate the scale of morpholithodynamic processes. The average long-term rate of coastal erosion ranges from 0.2 to 2.8 m per year along the coast. As a result of coastal erosion, 47 500 m3 of unconsolidated matter moves into the water from the Kharasavey coastal section per year. Up to 80% of the eroded material is composed of fine-grained fractions. Simultaneous with direct observations of coastal dynamics in 2008, sediments from the coastal bluff were sampled along the same coastal section. At each point, samples were taken from the main lithological units and from the organic-rich upper part of the coastal bluff. Total carbon (TC) and total organic carbon (TOC) content in these samples leads to calculations of the carbon carbon flux into the sea along a 10 km of the shore.