A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic
Eroding permafrost coasts are likely indicators and integrators of changes in the Arctic System as they are susceptible to the combined effects of declining sea ice extent, increases in open water duration, more frequent and impactful storms, sea-level rise, and warming permafrost. However, few obse...
Published in: | Environmental Research Letters |
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Language: | English |
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 https://doaj.org/article/f4b342390e224ea280331501892ed941 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:f4b342390e224ea280331501892ed941 2023-09-05T13:16:33+02:00 A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic Benjamin M Jones Louise M Farquharson Carson A Baughman Richard M Buzard Christopher D Arp Guido Grosse Diana L Bull Frank Günther Ingmar Nitze Frank Urban Jeremy L Kasper Jennifer M Frederick Matthew Thomas Craig Jones Alejandro Mota Scott Dallimore Craig Tweedie Christopher Maio Daniel H Mann Bruce Richmond Ann Gibbs Ming Xiao Torsten Sachs Go Iwahana Mikhail Kanevskiy Vladimir E Romanovsky 2018-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 https://doaj.org/article/f4b342390e224ea280331501892ed941 EN eng IOP Publishing https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/f4b342390e224ea280331501892ed941 Environmental Research Letters, Vol 13, Iss 11, p 115001 (2018) arctic coastal erosion ice-rich permafrost remote sensing change detection Arctic system Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 article 2018 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 2023-08-13T00:37:31Z Eroding permafrost coasts are likely indicators and integrators of changes in the Arctic System as they are susceptible to the combined effects of declining sea ice extent, increases in open water duration, more frequent and impactful storms, sea-level rise, and warming permafrost. However, few observation sites in the Arctic have yet to link decadal-scale erosion rates with changing environmental conditions due to temporal data gaps. This study increases the temporal fidelity of coastal permafrost bluff observations using near-annual high spatial resolution (<1 m) satellite imagery acquired between 2008–2017 for a 9 km segment of coastline at Drew Point, Beaufort Sea coast, Alaska. Our results show that mean annual erosion for the 2007–2016 decade was 17.2 m yr ^−1 , which is 2.5 times faster than historic rates, indicating that bluff erosion at this site is likely responding to changes in the Arctic System. In spite of a sustained increase in decadal-scale mean annual erosion rates, mean open water season erosion varied from 6.7 m yr ^−1 in 2010 to more than 22.0 m yr ^−1 in 2007, 2012, and 2016. This variability provided a range of coastal responses through which we explored the different roles of potential environmental drivers. The lack of significant correlations between mean open water season erosion and the environmental variables compiled in this study indicates that we may not be adequately capturing the environmental forcing factors, that the system is conditioned by long-term transient effects or extreme weather events rather than annual variability, or that other not yet considered factors may be responsible for the increased erosion occurring at Drew Point. Our results highlight an increase in erosion at Drew Point in the 21st century as well as the complexities associated with unraveling the factors responsible for changing coastal permafrost bluffs in the Arctic. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Beaufort Sea Ice permafrost Sea ice Alaska Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Environmental Research Letters 13 11 115001 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
arctic coastal erosion ice-rich permafrost remote sensing change detection Arctic system Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
spellingShingle |
arctic coastal erosion ice-rich permafrost remote sensing change detection Arctic system Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 Benjamin M Jones Louise M Farquharson Carson A Baughman Richard M Buzard Christopher D Arp Guido Grosse Diana L Bull Frank Günther Ingmar Nitze Frank Urban Jeremy L Kasper Jennifer M Frederick Matthew Thomas Craig Jones Alejandro Mota Scott Dallimore Craig Tweedie Christopher Maio Daniel H Mann Bruce Richmond Ann Gibbs Ming Xiao Torsten Sachs Go Iwahana Mikhail Kanevskiy Vladimir E Romanovsky A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic |
topic_facet |
arctic coastal erosion ice-rich permafrost remote sensing change detection Arctic system Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering TD1-1066 Environmental sciences GE1-350 Science Q Physics QC1-999 |
description |
Eroding permafrost coasts are likely indicators and integrators of changes in the Arctic System as they are susceptible to the combined effects of declining sea ice extent, increases in open water duration, more frequent and impactful storms, sea-level rise, and warming permafrost. However, few observation sites in the Arctic have yet to link decadal-scale erosion rates with changing environmental conditions due to temporal data gaps. This study increases the temporal fidelity of coastal permafrost bluff observations using near-annual high spatial resolution (<1 m) satellite imagery acquired between 2008–2017 for a 9 km segment of coastline at Drew Point, Beaufort Sea coast, Alaska. Our results show that mean annual erosion for the 2007–2016 decade was 17.2 m yr ^−1 , which is 2.5 times faster than historic rates, indicating that bluff erosion at this site is likely responding to changes in the Arctic System. In spite of a sustained increase in decadal-scale mean annual erosion rates, mean open water season erosion varied from 6.7 m yr ^−1 in 2010 to more than 22.0 m yr ^−1 in 2007, 2012, and 2016. This variability provided a range of coastal responses through which we explored the different roles of potential environmental drivers. The lack of significant correlations between mean open water season erosion and the environmental variables compiled in this study indicates that we may not be adequately capturing the environmental forcing factors, that the system is conditioned by long-term transient effects or extreme weather events rather than annual variability, or that other not yet considered factors may be responsible for the increased erosion occurring at Drew Point. Our results highlight an increase in erosion at Drew Point in the 21st century as well as the complexities associated with unraveling the factors responsible for changing coastal permafrost bluffs in the Arctic. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Benjamin M Jones Louise M Farquharson Carson A Baughman Richard M Buzard Christopher D Arp Guido Grosse Diana L Bull Frank Günther Ingmar Nitze Frank Urban Jeremy L Kasper Jennifer M Frederick Matthew Thomas Craig Jones Alejandro Mota Scott Dallimore Craig Tweedie Christopher Maio Daniel H Mann Bruce Richmond Ann Gibbs Ming Xiao Torsten Sachs Go Iwahana Mikhail Kanevskiy Vladimir E Romanovsky |
author_facet |
Benjamin M Jones Louise M Farquharson Carson A Baughman Richard M Buzard Christopher D Arp Guido Grosse Diana L Bull Frank Günther Ingmar Nitze Frank Urban Jeremy L Kasper Jennifer M Frederick Matthew Thomas Craig Jones Alejandro Mota Scott Dallimore Craig Tweedie Christopher Maio Daniel H Mann Bruce Richmond Ann Gibbs Ming Xiao Torsten Sachs Go Iwahana Mikhail Kanevskiy Vladimir E Romanovsky |
author_sort |
Benjamin M Jones |
title |
A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic |
title_short |
A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic |
title_full |
A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic |
title_fullStr |
A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic |
title_full_unstemmed |
A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic |
title_sort |
decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the arctic |
publisher |
IOP Publishing |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 https://doaj.org/article/f4b342390e224ea280331501892ed941 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Ice permafrost Sea ice Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Beaufort Sea Ice permafrost Sea ice Alaska |
op_source |
Environmental Research Letters, Vol 13, Iss 11, p 115001 (2018) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 https://doaj.org/toc/1748-9326 doi:10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 1748-9326 https://doaj.org/article/f4b342390e224ea280331501892ed941 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aae471 |
container_title |
Environmental Research Letters |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
115001 |
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1776198092403507200 |