Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR
Increases in air, permafrost, and sea surface temperature, loss of sea ice, the potential for increased wave energy, and higher river discharge may all be interacting to escalate erosion of arctic coastal lowland landscapes. Here we use airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data acquired in 2...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:4e388589586d41bc91a945ed39ee6ba4 2023-09-05T13:16:53+02:00 Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR Benjamin M Jones Jason M Stoker Ann E Gibbs Guido Grosse Vladimir E Romanovsky Thomas A Douglas Nicole E M Kinsman Bruce M Richmond 2013-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 https://doaj.org/article/4e388589586d41bc91a945ed39ee6ba4 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/4e388589586d41bc91a945ed39ee6ba4 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 8, Iss 4, p 045025 (2013) Arctic coasts LiDAR permafrost thermokarst Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2013 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 2023-08-13T00:37:31Z Increases in air, permafrost, and sea surface temperature, loss of sea ice, the potential for increased wave energy, and higher river discharge may all be interacting to escalate erosion of arctic coastal lowland landscapes. Here we use airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data acquired in 2006 and 2010 to detect landscape change in a 100 km ^2 study area on the Beaufort Sea coastal plain of northern Alaska. We detected statistically significant change (99% confidence interval), defined as contiguous areas (>10 m ^2 ) that had changed in height by at least 0.55 m, in 0.3% of the study region. Erosional features indicative of ice-rich permafrost degradation were associated with ice-bonded coastal, river, and lake bluffs, frost mounds, ice wedges, and thermo-erosional gullies. These features accounted for about half of the area where vertical change was detected. Inferred thermo-denudation and thermo-abrasion of coastal and river bluffs likely accounted for the dominant permafrost-related degradational processes with respect to area (42%) and volume (51%). More than 300 thermokarst pits significantly subsided during the study period, likely as a result of storm surge flooding of low-lying tundra (<1.4 m asl) as well as the lasting impact of warm summers in the late-1980s and mid-1990s. Our results indicate that repeat airborne LiDAR can be used to detect landscape change in arctic coastal lowland regions at large spatial scales over sub-decadal time periods. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Beaufort Sea Ice permafrost Sea ice Thermokarst Tundra wedge* Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Letters 8 4 045025 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic coasts LiDAR permafrost thermokarst Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic coasts LiDAR permafrost thermokarst Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Benjamin M Jones Jason M Stoker Ann E Gibbs Guido Grosse Vladimir E Romanovsky Thomas A Douglas Nicole E M Kinsman Bruce M Richmond Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR |
topic_facet |
Arctic coasts LiDAR permafrost thermokarst Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Increases in air, permafrost, and sea surface temperature, loss of sea ice, the potential for increased wave energy, and higher river discharge may all be interacting to escalate erosion of arctic coastal lowland landscapes. Here we use airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data acquired in 2006 and 2010 to detect landscape change in a 100 km ^2 study area on the Beaufort Sea coastal plain of northern Alaska. We detected statistically significant change (99% confidence interval), defined as contiguous areas (>10 m ^2 ) that had changed in height by at least 0.55 m, in 0.3% of the study region. Erosional features indicative of ice-rich permafrost degradation were associated with ice-bonded coastal, river, and lake bluffs, frost mounds, ice wedges, and thermo-erosional gullies. These features accounted for about half of the area where vertical change was detected. Inferred thermo-denudation and thermo-abrasion of coastal and river bluffs likely accounted for the dominant permafrost-related degradational processes with respect to area (42%) and volume (51%). More than 300 thermokarst pits significantly subsided during the study period, likely as a result of storm surge flooding of low-lying tundra (<1.4 m asl) as well as the lasting impact of warm summers in the late-1980s and mid-1990s. Our results indicate that repeat airborne LiDAR can be used to detect landscape change in arctic coastal lowland regions at large spatial scales over sub-decadal time periods. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Benjamin M Jones Jason M Stoker Ann E Gibbs Guido Grosse Vladimir E Romanovsky Thomas A Douglas Nicole E M Kinsman Bruce M Richmond |
author_facet |
Benjamin M Jones Jason M Stoker Ann E Gibbs Guido Grosse Vladimir E Romanovsky Thomas A Douglas Nicole E M Kinsman Bruce M Richmond |
author_sort |
Benjamin M Jones |
title |
Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR |
title_short |
Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR |
title_full |
Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR |
title_fullStr |
Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR |
title_full_unstemmed |
Quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne LiDAR |
title_sort |
quantifying landscape change in an arctic coastal lowland using repeat airborne lidar |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 https://doaj.org/article/4e388589586d41bc91a945ed39ee6ba4 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Ice permafrost Sea ice Thermokarst Tundra wedge* Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Ice permafrost Sea ice Thermokarst Tundra wedge* Alaska |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 8, Iss 4, p 045025 (2013) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/4e388589586d41bc91a945ed39ee6ba4 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/4/045025 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
045025 |
_version_ |
1776198309188206592 |