Two mechanisms of aquatic and terrestrial habitat change along an Alaskan Arctic coastline

Arp, Christopher D.; Jones, Benjamin M.; Schmutz, Joel A.; Urban, F. E.; Jorgenson, M. Torre

doi:10.1007/s00300-010-0800-5

Cited by 42 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In 2007, the only event meeting these criteria produced 1.1 mm over a 7-h period and no response was observed at any watershed gauging station. In 2008, a relatively strong weather system affecting much of the ACP (Arp et al, 2010) produced 6.7 mm of rainfall over an 18-h period with peak-flow responses detected in both the UFC and JC watersheds, but not UR (Table 5). The 2009 rainfall event analyzed was the largest within the 3-year observation period with 11 mm of rainfall over a 12-h period on 29 August and another event of 4.6 mm over a 10-h period on 31 August, the most isolated rain event available for analysis during this relatively wet summer.…”

Section: Interannual Variability and Runoff Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drainage Network Structure and Hydrologic Behavior of Three Lake-Rich Watersheds on the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska

Arp

Whitman

Jones

et al. 2012

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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Section: Interannual Variability and Runoff Responsesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drainage Network Structure and Hydrologic Behavior of Three Lake-Rich Watersheds on the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska

Arp

Whitman

Jones

et al. 2012

Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research

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“…Although the Kara Sea region experiences frequent storms of long duration (Atkinson, 2005), Vasiliev (2003) finds that only in occasional cases up to 20 % of coastal retreat can be attributed to storms. Arp et al (2010) report on recent erosion for the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast, where they observe even more rapid rates of up to −17.1 m a −1 , but find little correlation to sea surface and soil temperatures and, in particular, no consistency with storm events. Although potential local controls on erosion such as ground ice content have been identified (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Observing Muostakh disappear: permafrost thaw subsidence and erosion of a ground-ice-rich island in response to arctic summer warming and sea ice reduction

Günther

Overduin

Yakshina³

et al. 2015

The Cryosphere

171

172

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Abstract.Observations of coastline retreat using contemporary very high resolution satellite and historical aerial imagery were compared to measurements of open water fraction, summer air temperature, and wind. We analysed seasonal and interannual variations of thawing-induced cliff top retreat (thermo-denudation) and marine abrasion (thermoabrasion) on Muostakh Island in the southern central Laptev Sea. Geomorphometric analysis revealed that total ground ice content on Muostakh is made up of equal amounts of intrasedimentary and macro ground ice and sums up to 87 %, rendering the island particularly susceptible to erosion along the coast, resulting in land loss. Based on topographic reference measurements during field campaigns, we generated digital elevation models using stereophotogrammetry, in order to block-adjust and orthorectify aerial photographs from 1951 and GeoEye, QuickBird, WorldView-1, and WorldView-2 imagery from 2010 to 2013 for change detection. Using sea ice concentration data from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and air temperature time series from nearby Tiksi, we calculated the seasonal duration available for thermo-abrasion, expressed as open water days, and for thermo-denudation, based on the number of days with positive mean daily temperatures. Seasonal dynamics of cliff top retreat revealed rapid thermo-denudation rates of −10.2 ± 4.5 m a −1 in mid-summer and thermo-abrasion rates along the coastline of −3.4 ± 2.7 m a −1 on average during the 2010-2013 observation period, currently almost twice as rapid as the mean rate of −1.8 ± 1.3 m a −1 since 1951. Our results showed a close relationship between mean summer air temperature and coastal thermo-erosion rates, in agreement with observations made for various permafrost coastlines different to the East Siberian Ice Complex coasts elsewhere in the Arctic. Seasonality of coastline retreat and interannual variations of environmental factors suggest that an increasing length of thermo-denudation and thermo-abrasion process simultaneity favours greater coastal erosion. Coastal thermoerosion has reduced the island's area by 0.9 km 2 (24 %) over the past 62 years but shrank its volume by 28 × 10 6 m 3 (40 %), not least because of permafrost thaw subsidence, with the most pronounced with rates of ≥ −11 cm a −1 on yedoma uplands near the island's rapidly eroding northern cape. Recent acceleration in both will halve Muostakh Island's lifetime to less than a century.

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“…These dynamic environmental changes complicate predictions of the future abundance and distributions of coastal plant communities as some may be lost to sea level rise and erosion, whereas others may be transformed from freshwater to halophytic species through saltwater intrusion [4,5]. Tools that monitor changes in the abundance and quality of arctic landscapes are needed to evaluate how wildlife habitats may be altered [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index as an Estimator for Abundance and Quality of Avian Herbivore Forage in Arctic Alaska

et al. 2017

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Tools that can monitor biomass and nutritional quality of forage plants are needed to understand how arctic herbivores may respond to the rapidly changing environment at high latitudes. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) has been widely used to assess changes in abundance and distribution of terrestrial vegetative communities. However, the efficacy of NDVI to measure seasonal changes in biomass and nutritional quality of forage plants in the Arctic remains largely un-evaluated at landscape and fine-scale levels. We modeled the relationships between NDVI and seasonal changes in aboveground biomass and nitrogen concentration in halophytic graminoids, a key food source for arctic-nesting geese. The model was calibrated based on data collected at one site and validated using data from another site. Effects of spatial scale on model accuracy were determined by comparing model predictions between NDVI derived from moderate resolution (250 × 250 m pixels) satellite data and high resolution (20 cm diameter area) handheld spectrometer data. NDVI derived from the handheld spectrometer was a superior estimator (R 2 ≥ 0.67) of seasonal changes in aboveground biomass compared to satellite-derived NDVI (R 2 ≤ 0.40). The addition of temperature and precipitation variables to the model for biomass improved fit, but provided minor gains in predictive power beyond that of the NDVI-only model. This model, however, was only a moderately accurate estimator of biomass in an ecologically-similar halophytic graminoid wetland located 100 km away, indicating the necessity for site-specific validation. In contrast to assessments of biomass, satellite-derived NDVI was a better estimator for the timing of peak percent of nitrogen than NDVI derived from the handheld spectrometer. We confirmed that the date when NDVI reached 50% of its seasonal maximum was a reasonable approximation of the period of peak spring vegetative green-up and peak percent nitrogen. This study demonstrates the importance of matching the scale of NDVI measurements to the vegetation properties of biomass and nitrogen phenology.

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Two mechanisms of aquatic and terrestrial habitat change along an Alaskan Arctic coastline

Cited by 42 publications

References 36 publications

Drainage Network Structure and Hydrologic Behavior of Three Lake-Rich Watersheds on the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska

Drainage Network Structure and Hydrologic Behavior of Three Lake-Rich Watersheds on the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska

Observing Muostakh disappear: permafrost thaw subsidence and erosion of a ground-ice-rich island in response to arctic summer warming and sea ice reduction

Normalized Difference Vegetation Index as an Estimator for Abundance and Quality of Avian Herbivore Forage in Arctic Alaska

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