Shoreline change rates and land to sea sediment and soil organic carbon transfer in eastern Parry Peninsula from 1965 to 2020 (Amundsen Gulf, Canada)

As the Arctic is warming, permafrost coasts are eroding faster, threatening coastal communities, habitats, and altering sediment and nutrient budgets. The western Canadian Arctic is eroding at a rapid pace; however, little is known on changes occurring in the Amundsen Gulf area. This study was condu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arctic Science
Main Authors: Rodrigue Tanguy, Dustin Whalen, Gonçalo Prates, Gonçalo Vieira
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
French
Published: Canadian Science Publishing 2023
Subjects:
coastal dynamics
permafrost
Darnley Bay
carbon fluxes
remote sensing
baie de Darnley
Environmental sciences
GE1-350
Environmental engineering
TA170-171
Arctic
Canada
Parry
Darnley
Paulatuk
Parry Peninsula
Amundsen Gulf
Ice
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0028
https://doaj.org/article/62539c423d1442cbb1f1871ea38313be
Description
Summary:As the Arctic is warming, permafrost coasts are eroding faster, threatening coastal communities, habitats, and altering sediment and nutrient budgets. The western Canadian Arctic is eroding at a rapid pace; however, little is known on changes occurring in the Amundsen Gulf area. This study was conducted in the eastern coast of Parry Peninsula, a neglected rock-dominated coastal area. We used orthorectified aerial photos of 1965 and 1993 and very high-resolution satellite imagery of 2020 to manually delineate the shoreline according to backshore and foreshore centered approaches. Shoreline change rates were calculated and sediment and organic carbon transfer from land to sea estimated using digital elevation model, the Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database, and ground ice content. The results show a mean erosion rate of 0.12 m/yr for the backshore zone and 0.16 m/yr for the foreshore zone, with increasing erosion in the Paulatuk Peninsula in recent decades. The average sediment transfer from land to sea was 20 m3/m/yr and the soil organic carbon (SOC) flux was 7 kg C/m/yr. We highlight the importance of using the cliff-top as shoreline reference to accurately estimate sediment and SOC transfers, an approach neglected in automatic shoreline delineation techniques based on remote sensing imagery using the waterline.

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