|
22-27 April 2012, Montréal, Canada From Knowledge to Action |
|
|
News
Top news from the polar science community
|
Changes to and Implications of Changing Arctic Coastlines "The circumpolar Arctic coast is arguably one of the most critical zones in terms of the rapidity and the severity of environmental change and the implications for human communities dependent on coastal resources," says the international report State of the Arctic Coast 2010 – Scientific Review and Outlook. The interdisciplinary 170-page report, published in April 2011, examines the far-reaching impacts of climate change on the physical, ecological, social, economic and institutional states of Arctic coasts. "All of these are very closely interconnected in the coastal area," says Dr. Volker Rachold, Executive Secretary of the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) and a member of the report's editorial board. "One key issue is increased coastal erosion, caused by the combined effects of sea-level rise, reduced sea ice, melting permafrost and the higher frequency and strength of storms. This creates a variety of issues for Arctic residents since a high proportion of them live on the coast and use the sea ice for transportation, hunting and fishing. Some communities have already had to be moved inland due to erosion." Dr. Rachold is on the steering committee for the IPY 2012 Conference From Knowledge to Action, taking place in Montréal, Québec, Canada in April 2012. The conference will explore key changes underway in polar regions and how the findings of IPY 2007-2008 and recent polar science can be transformed into actions to address critical global issues. State of the Arctic Coasts 2010 ? sponsored by IASC, the international Land-Ocean Interactions in the Coastal Zone (LOICZ) Project, the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), and the International Permafrost Association (IPA) ? addresses many polar issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. The report encompasses 10 years of research and is a collaboration of 47 authors from 10 nations. "Arctic coastlines are retreating by a half-metre per year on average with more dramatic changes in the Laptev, East Siberian and Beaufort Seas, where coastal erosion rates reach more than eight metres a year in some cases," says Dr. Hugues Lantuit, Executive Director of IPA and also an editorial board member. Unconsolidated permafrost coastlines, which are composed of soft sediments and materials held together by ice, are particularly vulnerable to erosion. The result is rapid changes along coastlines that have remained stable for millennia and significant changes in ecological conditions that affect wild animal stocks and sea birds. Dr. Lantuit, who will chair the permafrost session at IPY 2012, is lead author of the paper "The Arctic Coastal Dynamics Database: A New Classification Scheme and Statistics on Arctic Permafrost Coastlines" (Estuaries and Coasts, 2011), which was published in connection with the main report. One concern, he says, is "since everything in the Arctic has to be built on permafrost and cross the land-sea boundary, if that area is becoming unstable then any construction becomes unstable, which is an issue for communities and industrial development including oil and gas pipelines." The report also raises some emerging issues, including :
As State of the Arctic Coasts 2010 states: "The development of effective adaptation strategies requires an understanding of the vulnerability and resilience of human-environment systems in a changing Arctic, in terms of who is vulnerable, to what stresses, what are the determinants of vulnerability and resilience, and what are the opportunities for adaptation policy." To sign up for the IPY newsletter, please contact: . |
|
