Coastal Landscape Dynamics in NE Sørkapp Land (SE Spitsbergen), 1900–2005

• Published in: AMBIO: A Journal of the Human Environment
• Main Authors: Wieslaw Ziaja, Wojciech Maciejowski, Krzysztof Ostafin
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2009
• Subjects: Barents Sea; Sørkapp Land; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-38.4.201

This report presents the current dynamics of the natural environment and landscape in a part of the mountainous southeastern Spitsbergen coast on the Barents Sea in 1900–2005. Its current state substantially varies from what is shown on recently published topographic maps actual for 1936. The physico-geographical mapping and GPS survey were the basic field methods of recognizing the area, supplemented by remote sensing. Each landscape component, except for the Pre-Quaternary bedrock, has been changed primarily as a direct or indirect result of the current warming. The most dramatic landscape transformation has been connected with the formation of a fjord, the abandoning of the lower parts of valleys by tidewater glaciers, and the alteration of the coastline. This transformation's pace has been increasing visibly over the last few decades. The landscape became more diversified. There is a positive feedback in the process of life expansion in the study area: the processes of animal colonization and plant succession stimulate each other.