Vegetation composition and shrub extent on the Yukon coast, Canada, are strongly linked to ice-wedge polygon degradation

Juliane Wolter

Published: June 17, 2016

Changing environmental and geomorphological conditions are resulting in vegetation change in ice-wedge polygons in Arctic tundra. However, we do not yet know how microscale vegetation patterns relate to individual environmental and geomorphological parameters. This work aims at examining these relations in polygonal terrain. We analysed composition and cover of vascular plant taxa and surface height, active layer depth, soil temperature, carbon and nitrogen content, pH and electrical conductivity in four polygon mires located on the Yukon coast. We found that vascular plant species composition and cover correlates best with relative surface height. Ridges of low-centred polygons and raised centres of …

Air temperature variations and gradients along the coast and fjords of western Spitsbergen

Herdis M. Gjelten,

Øyvind Nordli,

Ketil Isaksen,

Eirik J. Førland,

Pavel N. Sviashchennikov,

Przemyslaw Wyszynski,

Uliana V. Prokhorova,

Rajmund Przybylak,

Boris V. Ivanov,

Alexandra V. Urazgildeeva

Published: July 29, 2016

Daily temperature measurements from six meteorological stations along the coast and fjords of western Spitsbergen have been digitized and quality controlled in a Norwegian, Russian and Polish collaboration. Complete daily data series have been reconstructed back to 1948 for all of the stations. One of the station’s monthly temperature series has previously been extended back to 1898 and is included in this study. The long-term series show large temperature variability on western Spitsbergen with colder periods in the 1910s and 1960s and warmer periods in the 1930s, 1950s and in the 21st century. The most recent years are the warmest …

Relation between planimetric and volumetric measurements of permafrost coast erosion: a case study from Herschel Island, western Canadian Arctic

Jaroslav Obu,

Hugues Lantuit,

Michael Fritz,

Wayne H. Pollard,

Torsten Sachs,

Frank Günther

Published: Sept. 23, 2016

Ice-rich permafrost coasts often undergo rapid erosion, which results in land loss and release of considerable amounts of sediment, organic carbon and nutrients, impacting the near-shore ecosystems. Because of the lack of volumetric erosion data, Arctic coastal erosion studies typically report on planimetric erosion. Our aim is to explore the relationship between planimetric and volumetric coastal erosion measurements and to update the coastal erosion rates on Herschel Island in the Canadian Arctic. We used high-resolution digital elevation models to compute sediment release and compare volumetric data to planimetric estimations of coastline movements digitized from satellite imagery. Our results show that …

Morphology of seamounts at the Mendeleev Rise, Arctic Ocean

Evgeny Gusev,

Pavel Rekant,

Valery Kaminsky,

Alexey Krylov,

Andrey Morozov,

Sergey Shokalsky,

Sergey Kashubin

Published: April 10, 2017

Geological and geophysical studies undertaken during the Russian Arktika-2012 Expedition of 2012 produced evidence of basement outcrops on the steep slopes of the Mendeleev Rise seamounts. Observations of the outcrops from research submarines showed that part of the steep slopes interpreted as basement outcrops based on seismic data were overlain by a light sediment cover. The actual areas of the basement outcrops are therefore much less than indicated by the seismic data alone. The outcrops found are of 5–10 to 100–200 m and are often stretched along some hypsometric level or arranged obliquely, crossing a slope at an angle to …

The number and distribution of polar bears in the western Barents Sea

Jon Aars,

Tiago A. Marques,

Karen Lone,

Magnus Andersen,

Øystein Wiig,

Ida Marie Bardalen Fløystad,

Snorre B. Hagen,

Stephen T. Buckland

Published: Oct. 9, 2017

Polar bears have experienced a rapid loss of sea-ice habitat in the Barents Sea. Monitoring this subpopulation focuses on the effects on polar bear demography. In August 2015, we conducted a survey in the Norwegian Arctic to estimate polar bear numbers and reveal population substructure. DNA profiles from biopsy samples and ear tags identified on photographs revealed that about half of the bears in Svalbard, compared to only 4.5% in the pack ice north of the archipelago, were recognized recaptures. The recaptured bears had originally been marked in Svalbard, mostly in spring. The existence of a local Svalbard stock, and …

Novel terrestrial haul-out behaviour by ringed seals (Pusa hispida) in Svalbard, in association with harbour seals (Phoca vitulina)

Christian Lydersen,

Kit M. Kovacs,

Jade Vaquie-Garcia,

Espen Lydersen,

Guttorm N. Christensen

Published: Oct. 6, 2017

Ringed seals (Pusa hispida) are the most ice-associated of all Arctic pinnipeds. In the Svalbard area, this species has always given birth, moulted and rested on sea ice. In addition, much of their food has been comprised of ice-associated prey. Recently, ringed seals have been reported to be using terrestrial substrates as a haul-out platform in some fjords on the west coast of Spitsbergen. In many cases the seals involved are harbour seals (Phoca vitulina), which are extending their distribution into new areas within the Svalbard Archipelago and which are being misclassified as ringed seals. However, this study reports that …

Academia in Svalbard: an increasingly important role for research and education as tools for Norwegian policy

Ole Arve Misund

Published: April 25, 2017

Svalbard, a High-Arctic archipelago over which Norway practises sovereignty in accordance with the terms of the Svalbard Treaty, has become an increasingly important area for Arctic research and higher education. There are four more or less permanent settlements with substantial research infrastructure, and a few manned observatories for special purposes. Several Norwegian and foreign research institutions have established stations and installations in the archipelago. With coal mining activity scaling down because of economic difficulties and lack of political support for subsidies, Norwegian policy will prioritize research and higher education as a way of maintaining Norwegian settlements in Svalbard. I give …

Automatic detection of snow avalanche debris in central Svalbard using C-band SAR data

Dieuwertje S. Wesselink,

Eirik Malnes,

Markus Eckerstorfer,

Roderik C. Lindenbergh

Published: June 30, 2017

Snow avalanches pose a threat to people and infrastructure in and around Svalbard’s main settlement Longyearbyen. Since January 2016, publically available regional avalanche warnings are issued daily for Nordenskiöld Land, the area around Longyearbyen. Avalanche warning services rely on information of when and where avalanches occur. Systematic field observations of avalanche activity are not feasible across all of the vast area (ca. 7200 km2) of Nordenskiöld Land. Svalbard also experiences over four months of polar night per year. However, using synthetic aperture radar (SAR), a weather- and light-independent technique, large areas can be monitored at once. We have developed a …

Determining the species assemblage and habitat use of cetaceans in the Svalbard Archipelago, based on observations from 2002 to 2014

Luke Storrie,

Christian Lydersen,

Magnus Andersen,

Russell B. Wynn,

Kit M. Kovacs

Published: June 1, 2018

This study used 13 years of cetacean sighting data (2002–2014) from waters around the Svalbard Archipelago to determine key habitats for year-round resident species as well as seasonally resident species, and to explore spatial overlap between these groups via a combination of kernel density estimation and Maxent modelling. The data set consists of observations made by research vessels conducting various marine studies, coast guard ships and marine-cruise tourist operators. Data are reported from the seasonal period in which there is daylight (March-November), though 95% of the observations occurred June- September. Changes over the study period were investigated, within the limits …

Radiogenic isotope (Nd, Pb, Sr) signatures of surface and sea ice-transported sediments from the Arctic Ocean under the present interglacial conditions

Jenny Maccali,

Claude Hillaire-Marcel,

Christelle Not

Published: March 22, 2018

Under modern conditions, sediments from the large continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean are mixed by currents, incorporated into sea ice and redistributed over the Arctic Basin through the Beaufort Gyre and Trans-Polar Drift major sea-ice routes. Here, compiling data from the literature and combining them with our own data, we explore how radiogenic isotopes (Sr, Pb and Nd) from Arctic shelf surface sediment can be used to identify inland and coastal sediment sources. Based on discriminant function analyses, the use of two-isotope systematics introduces a large uncertainty (ca. 50%) that prevents unequivocal identifications of regional shelf signatures. However, when …