TY - GEN A1 - Klein, Konstantin A1 - Lantuit, Hugues A1 - Rolph, Rebecca T1 - Drivers of Turbidity and Its Seasonal Variability at Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk (Western Canadian Arctic) T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The Arctic is greatly affected by climate change. Increasing air temperatures drive permafrost thaw and an increase in coastal erosion and river discharge. This results in a greater input of sediment and organic matter into nearshore waters, impacting ecosystems by reducing light transmission through the water column and altering biogeochemistry. This potentially results in impacts on the subsistence economy of local people as well as the climate due to the transformation of suspended organic matter into greenhouse gases. Even though the impacts of increased suspended sediment concentrations and turbidity in the Arctic nearshore zone are well-studied, the mechanisms underpinning this increase are largely unknown. Wave energy and tides drive the level of turbidity in the temperate and tropical parts of the world, and this is generally assumed to also be the case in the Arctic. However, the tidal range is considerably lower in the Arctic, and processes related to the occurrence of permafrost have the potential to greatly contribute to nearshore turbidity. In this study, we use high-resolution satellite imagery alongside in situ and ERA5 reanalysis data of ocean and climate variables in order to identify the drivers of nearshore turbidity, along with its seasonality in the nearshore waters of Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk, in the western Canadian Arctic. Nearshore turbidity correlates well to wind direction, wind speed, significant wave height, and wave period. Nearshore turbidity is superiorly correlated to wind speed at the Beaufort Shelf compared to in situ measurements at Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk, showing that nearshore turbidity, albeit being of limited spatial extent, is influenced by large-scale weather and ocean phenomenons. We show that, in contrast to the temperate and tropical ocean, freshly eroded material is the predominant driver of nearshore turbidity in the Arctic, rather than resuspension, which is caused by the vulnerability of permafrost coasts to thermo-erosion. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1270 KW - ocean color remote sensing KW - Arctic ocean KW - suspended sediment KW - Landsat KW - Sentinel 2 KW - ERA5 KW - nearshore zone Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561765 SN - 1866-8372 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Universitätsverlag Potsdam CY - Potsdam ER - TY - GEN A1 - Klein, Konstantin P. A1 - Lantuit, Hugues A1 - Heim, Birgit A1 - Doxaran, David A1 - Juhls, Bennet A1 - Nitze, Ingmar A1 - Walch, Daniela A1 - Poste, Amanda A1 - Søreide, Janne E. T1 - The Arctic Nearshore Turbidity Algorithm (ANTA) BT - A multi sensor turbidity algorithm for Arctic nearshore environments T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The Arctic is greatly impacted by climate change. The increase in air temperature drives the thawing of permafrost and an increase in coastal erosion and river discharge. This leads to a greater input of sediment and organic matter into coastal waters, which substantially impacts the ecosystems by reducing light transmission through the water column and altering the biogeochemistry, but also the subsistence economy of local people, and changes in climate because of the transformation of organic matter into greenhouse gases. Yet, the quantification of suspended sediment in Arctic coastal and nearshore waters remains unsatisfactory due to the absence of dedicated algorithms to resolve the high loads occurring in the close vicinity of the shoreline. In this study we present the Arctic Nearshore Turbidity Algorithm (ANTA), the first reflectance-turbidity relationship specifically targeted towards Arctic nearshore waters that is tuned with in-situ measurements from the nearshore waters of Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk in the western Canadian Arctic. A semi-empirical model was calibrated for several relevant sensors in ocean color remote sensing, including MODIS, Sentinel 3 (OLCI), Landsat 8 (OLI), and Sentinel 2 (MSI), as well as the older Landsat sensors TM and ETM+. The ANTA performed better with Landsat 8 than with Sentinel 2 and Sentinel 3. The application of the ANTA to Sentinel 2 imagery that matches in-situ turbidity samples taken in Adventfjorden, Svalbard, shows transferability to nearshore areas beyond Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1250 KW - Ocean color remote sensing KW - Turbidity retrieval KW - Nearshore zone KW - Arctic Ocean Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-553692 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1250 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Biskaborn, Boris A1 - Smith, Sharon L. A1 - Noetzli, Jeannette A1 - Matthes, Heidrun A1 - Vieira, Gonçalo A1 - Streletskiy, Dmitry A. A1 - Schoeneich, Philippe A1 - Romanovsky, Vladimir E. A1 - Lewkowicz, Antoni G. A1 - Abramov, Andrey A1 - Allard, Michel A1 - Boike, Julia A1 - Cable, William L. A1 - Christiansen, Hanne H. A1 - Delaloye, Reynald A1 - Diekmann, Bernhard A1 - Drozdov, Dmitry A1 - Etzelmüller, Bernd A1 - Große, Guido A1 - Guglielmin, Mauro A1 - Ingeman-Nielsen, Thomas A1 - Isaksen, Ketil A1 - Ishikawa, Mamoru A1 - Johansson, Margareta A1 - Joo, Anseok A1 - Kaverin, Dmitry A1 - Kholodov, Alexander A1 - Konstantinov, Pavel A1 - Kröger, Tim A1 - Lambiel, Christophe A1 - Lanckman, Jean-Pierre A1 - Luo, Dongliang A1 - Malkova, Galina A1 - Meiklejohn, Ian A1 - Moskalenko, Natalia A1 - Oliva, Marc A1 - Phillips, Marcia A1 - Ramos, Miguel A1 - Sannel, A. Britta K. A1 - Sergeev, Dmitrii A1 - Seybold, Cathy A1 - Skryabin, Pavel A1 - Vasiliev, Alexander A1 - Wu, Qingbai A1 - Yoshikawa, Kenji A1 - Zheleznyak, Mikhail A1 - Lantuit, Hugues T1 - Permafrost is warming at a global scale T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Permafrost warming has the potential to amplify global climate change, because when frozen sediments thaw it unlocks soil organic carbon. Yet to date, no globally consistent assessment of permafrost temperature change has been compiled. Here we use a global data set of permafrost temperature time series from the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost to evaluate temperature change across permafrost regions for the period since the International Polar Year (2007–2009). During the reference decade between 2007 and 2016, ground temperature near the depth of zero annual amplitude in the continuous permafrost zone increased by 0.39 ± 0.15 °C. Over the same period, discontinuous permafrost warmed by 0.20 ± 0.10 °C. Permafrost in mountains warmed by 0.19 ± 0.05 °C and in Antarctica by 0.37 ± 0.10 °C. Globally, permafrost temperature increased by 0.29 ± 0.12 °C. The observed trend follows the Arctic amplification of air temperature increase in the Northern Hemisphere. In the discontinuous zone, however, ground warming occurred due to increased snow thickness while air temperature remained statistically unchanged. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 669 KW - seasonal snow cover KW - thermal state KW - climate-change KW - activ-layer KW - Antarctic Peninsula KW - stability Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-425341 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 669 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Stettner, Samuel A1 - Lantuit, Hugues A1 - Heim, Birgit A1 - Eppler, Jayson A1 - Roth, Achim A1 - Bartsch, Annett A1 - Rabus, Bernhard T1 - TerraSAR-X time series fill a gap in spaceborne snowmelt monitoring of small Arctic catchments BT - a case study on Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island), Canada T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The timing of snowmelt is an important turning point in the seasonal cycle of small Arctic catchments. The TerraSAR-X (TSX) satellite mission is a synthetic aperture radar system (SAR) with high potential to measure the high spatiotemporal variability of snow cover extent (SCE) and fractional snow cover (FSC) on the small catchment scale. We investigate the performance of multi-polarized and multi-pass TSX X-Band SAR data in monitoring SCE and FSC in small Arctic tundra catchments of Qikiqtaruk (Herschel Island) off the Yukon Coast in the Western Canadian Arctic. We applied a threshold based segmentation on ratio images between TSX images with wet snow and a dry snow reference, and tested the performance of two different thresholds. We quantitatively compared TSX- and Landsat 8-derived SCE maps using confusion matrices and analyzed the spatiotemporal dynamics of snowmelt from 2015 to 2017 using TSX, Landsat 8 and in situ time lapse data. Our data showed that the quality of SCE maps from TSX X-Band data is strongly influenced by polarization and to a lesser degree by incidence angle. VH polarized TSX data performed best in deriving SCE when compared to Landsat 8. TSX derived SCE maps from VH polarization detected late lying snow patches that were not detected by Landsat 8. Results of a local assessment of TSX FSC against the in situ data showed that TSX FSC accurately captured the temporal dynamics of different snow melt regimes that were related to topographic characteristics of the studied catchments. Both in situ and TSX FSC showed a longer snowmelt period in a catchment with higher contributions of steep valleys and a shorter snowmelt period in a catchment with higher contributions of upland terrain. Landsat 8 had fundamental data gaps during the snowmelt period in all 3 years due to cloud cover. The results also revealed that by choosing a positive threshold of 1 dB, detection of ice layers due to diurnal temperature variations resulted in a more accurate estimation of snow cover than a negative threshold that detects wet snow alone. We find that TSX X-Band data in VH polarization performs at a comparable quality to Landsat 8 in deriving SCE maps when a positive threshold is used. We conclude that TSX data polarization can be used to accurately monitor snowmelt events at high temporal and spatial resolution, overcoming limitations of Landsat 8, which due to cloud related data gaps generally only indicated the onset and end of snowmelt. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 689 KW - Snow Cover Extent (SCE) KW - TerraSAR-X KW - Landsat KW - wet snow KW - small Arctic catchments KW - satellite time series Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-426810 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 689 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Radosavljevic, Boris A1 - Lantuit, Hugues A1 - Pollard, Wayne A1 - Overduin, Pier Paul A1 - Couture, Nicole A1 - Sachs, Torsten A1 - Helm, Veit A1 - Fritz, Michael T1 - Erosion and flooding-threats to coastal Infrastructure in the Arctic BT - a case study from Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, Canada T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Arctic coastal infrastructure and cultural and archeological sites are increasingly vulnerable to erosion and flooding due to amplified warming of the Arctic, sea level rise, lengthening of open water periods, and a predicted increase in frequency of major storms. Mitigating these hazards necessitates decision-making tools at an appropriate scale. The objectives of this paper are to provide such a tool by assessing potential erosion and flood hazards at Herschel Island, a UNESCO World Heritage candidate site. This study focused on Simpson Point and the adjacent coastal sections because of their archeological, historical, and cultural significance. Shoreline movement was analyzed using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) after digitizing shorelines from 1952, 1970, 2000, and 2011. For purposes of this analysis, the coast was divided in seven coastal reaches (CRs) reflecting different morphologies and/or exposures. Using linear regression rates obtained from these data, projections of shoreline position were made for 20 and 50 years into the future. Flood hazard was assessed using a least cost path analysis based on a high-resolution light detection and ranging (LiDAR) dataset and current Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sea level estimates. Widespread erosion characterizes the study area. The rate of shoreline movement in different periods of the study ranges from −5.5 to 2.7 m·a⁻¹ (mean −0.6 m·a⁻¹). Mean coastal retreat decreased from −0.6 m·a⁻¹ to −0.5 m·a⁻¹, for 1952–1970 and 1970–2000, respectively, and increased to −1.3 m·a⁻¹ in the period 2000–2011. Ice-rich coastal sections most exposed to wave attack exhibited the highest rates of coastal retreat. The geohazard map combines shoreline projections and flood hazard analyses to show that most of the spit area has extreme or very high flood hazard potential, and some buildings are vulnerable to coastal erosion. This study demonstrates that transgressive forcing may provide ample sediment for the expansion of depositional landforms, while growing more susceptible to overwash and flooding. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 996 KW - Arctic KW - coastal erosion KW - UNESCO KW - vulnerability mapping; KW - permafrost coasts Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-432279 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 996 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Fritz, Michael A1 - Opel, Thomas A1 - Tanski, George A1 - Herzschuh, Ulrike A1 - Meyer, Hanno A1 - Eulenburg, A. A1 - Lantuit, Hugues T1 - Dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in Arctic ground ice T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Thermal permafrost degradation and coastal erosion in the Arctic remobilize substantial amounts of organic carbon (OC) and nutrients which have accumulated in late Pleistocene and Holocene unconsolidated deposits. Permafrost vulnerability to thaw subsidence, collapsing coastlines and irreversible landscape change are largely due to the presence of large amounts of massive ground ice such as ice wedges. However, ground ice has not, until now, been considered to be a source of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and other elements which are important for ecosystems and carbon cycling. Here we show, using biogeochemical data from a large number of different ice bodies throughout the Arctic, that ice wedges have the greatest potential for DOC storage, with a maximum of 28.6 mg L-1 (mean: 9.6 mg L-1). Variation in DOC concentration is positively correlated with and explained by the concentrations and relative amounts of typically terrestrial cations such as Mg2+ and K+. DOC sequestration into ground ice was more effective during the late Pleistocene than during the Holocene, which can be explained by rapid sediment and OC accumulation, the prevalence of more easily degradable vegetation and immediate incorporation into permafrost. We assume that pristine snowmelt is able to leach considerable amounts of well-preserved and highly bioavailable DOC as well as other elements from surface sediments, which are rapidly frozen and stored in ground ice, especially in ice wedges, even before further degradation. We found that ice wedges in the Yedoma region represent a significant DOC (45.2 Tg) and DIC (33.6 Tg) pool in permafrost areas and a freshwater reservoir of 4200 km(2). This study underlines the need to discriminate between particulate OC and DOC to assess the availability and vulnerability of the permafrost car-bon pool for ecosystems and climate feedback upon mobilization. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 493 KW - last glacial maximum KW - Beaufort Sea coast KW - Cape Mamontov Klyk KW - permafrost carbon KW - Laptev Sea KW - Lyakhovsky Island KW - climate-change KW - old carbon KW - hologene KW - Siberia Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-408155 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 493 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Biskaborn, Boris A1 - Lanckman, J.-P. A1 - Lantuit, Hugues A1 - Elger, K. A1 - Streletskiy, Dmitry A1 - Cable, W. L. A1 - Romanovsky, Vladimir E. T1 - The new database of the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN-P) provides the first dynamic database associated with the Thermal State of Permafrost (TSP) and the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM) programs, which extensively collect permafrost temperature and active layer thickness (ALT) data from Arctic, Antarctic and mountain permafrost regions. The purpose of GTN-P is to establish an early warning system for the consequences of climate change in permafrost regions and to provide standardized thermal permafrost data to global models. In this paper we introduce the GTN-P database and perform statistical analysis of the GTN-P metadata to identify and quantify the spatial gaps in the site distribution in relation to climate-effective environmental parameters. We describe the concept and structure of the data management system in regard to user operability, data transfer and data policy. We outline data sources and data processing including quality control strategies based on national correspondents. Assessment of the metadata and data quality reveals 63% metadata completeness at active layer sites and 50% metadata completeness for boreholes. Voronoi tessellation analysis on the spatial sample distribution of boreholes and active layer measurement sites quantifies the distribution inhomogeneity and provides a potential method to locate additional permafrost research sites by improving the representativeness of thermal monitoring across areas underlain by permafrost. The depth distribution of the boreholes reveals that 73% are shallower than 25m and 27% are deeper, reaching a maximum of 1 km depth. Comparison of the GTN-P site distribution with permafrost zones, soil organic carbon contents and vegetation types exhibits different local to regional monitoring situations, which are illustrated with maps. Preferential slope orientation at the sites most likely causes a bias in the temperature monitoring and should be taken into account when using the data for global models. The distribution of GTN-P sites within zones of projected temperature change show a high representation of areas with smaller expected temperature rise but a lower number of sites within Arctic areas where climate models project extreme temperature increase. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 523 KW - international polar year KW - thermal state KW - climate-change KW - active-layer KW - carbon Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-409612 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 523 ER - TY - THES A1 - Lantuit, Hugues T1 - The modification of arctic permafrost coastlines T1 - Die Veränderung der arktischen Permafrostküstenlinien N2 - The arctic region is undergoing the most rapid environmental change experienced on Earth, and the rate of change is expected to increase over the coming decades. Arctic coasts are particularly vulnerable because they lie at the interface between terrestrial systems dominated by permafrost and marine systems dominated by sea ice. An increased rise in sea level and degradation of sea-ice as predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its most recent report and as observed recently in the Arctic will likely result in greater rates of coastal retreat. An increase in coastal erosion would result in dramatic increases in the volume of sediment, organic carbon and contaminants to the Arctic Ocean. These in turn have the potential to create dramatic changes in the geochemistry and biodiversity of the nearshore zone and affect the Arctic Ocean carbon cycle. To calculate estimates of organic carbon input from coastal erosion to the Arctic Ocean, current methods rely on the length of the coastline in the form of non self-similar line datasets. This thesis however emphasizes that using shorelines drawn at different scales can induce changes in the amount of sediment released by 30% in some cases. It proposes a substitute method of computations of erosion based on areas instead of lengths (i.e. buffers instead of shoreline lengths) which can be easily implemented at the circum-Arctic scale. Using this method, variations in quantities of eroded sediment are, on average, 70% less affected by scale changes and are therefore a more reliable method of calculation. Current estimates of coastal erosion rates in the Arctic are scarce and long-term datasets are a handful, which complicates assessment and prognosis of coastal processes, in particular the occurrence of coastal hazards. This thesis aims at filling the gap by providing the first long-term dataset (1951-2006) of coastal erosion on the Bykovsky Peninsula, North-East Siberia. This study shows that the coastline, which is made of ice-rich permafrost, retreated at a mean annual rate of 0.59 m/yr between 1951and 2006. Rates were highly variable: 97.0 % of the rates observed were less than 2 m/yr and 81.6% were less than 1m/yr. However, no significant trend in erosion could be recorded despite the study of five temporal subperiods within 1951-2006. The juxtaposition of wind records could not help to explain erosion records either and this thesis emphasizes the local controls on erosion, in particular the cryostratigraphy, the proximity of the Peninsula to the Lena River Delta freshwater plume and the local topographical constraints on swell development. On ice-rich coastal stretches of the Artic, the interaction of coastal dynamics and permafrost leads to the occurrence of spectacular “C-shaped” depressions termed retrogressive thaw slumps which can reach lengths of up to 650 m. On Herschel Island and at King Point (Yukon Coastal Plain, northern Canada), topographical, sedimentological and biogeochemical surveys were conducted to investigate the present and past activity of these landforms. In particular, undisturbed tundra areas were compared with zones of former slump activity, now stabilized and re-vegetated. This thesis shows that stabilized areas are drier and less prone to plant growth than undisturbed areas and feature fundamentally different geotechnical properties. Radiocarbon dating and topographical surveys indicated until up to 300 BP a likely period of dramatic slump activity on Herschel Island, similar to the one currently observed, which led to the creation of these surfaces. This thesis hypothesizes the occurrence of a ~250 years cycle of slump activity on the Herschel Island shoreline based on the surveyed topography and cryostratigraphy and anticipates higher frequency of slump activity in the future. The variety of processes described in this thesis highlights the changing nature of the intensity and frequency of physical processes acting upon the arctic coast. It also challenges current perceptions of the threats to existing industry and community infrastructure in the Arctic. The increasing presence of humans on Artic coasts coupled with the expected development of shipping will drive an increase in economical and industrial activity on these coasts which remains to be addressed scientifically. N2 - In der Arktis sind die derzeit stärksten Umweltänderungen weltweit zu beobachten, und es wird angenommen, dass sich deren Ausmaß sogar noch verstärken wird. Aufgrund ihrer Lage zwischen terrestrischen, von Permafrost geprägten Systemen und marinen, von Meereis geprägten Systemen, sind arktische Küstenregionen im Zuge dieses Wandels besonders sensibel. Ein verstärkter Meeresspiegelanstieg und der Rückgang des Meereises, wie vom letzten Bericht des Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) vorhergesagt und in letzter Zeit in der Arktis beobachtet, werden zu erhöhten Küstenrückzugsraten führen. Ein Anstieg der Küstenerosion würde zu einer drastischen Erhöhung von Sedimentfracht, organischem Kohlenstoff und von Schadstoffen im Arktischen Ozean führen. Durch diese wiederum drohen dramatische Änderungen in der Geochemie und Biodiversität der küstennahen Zone sowie Veränderungen im Kohlenstoffkreislauf des Arktischen Ozeans. Modelle zur Berechnung des Eintrags organischen Kohlenstoffs in den Arktischen Ozean infolge von Küstenerosion basieren auf der Länge der Küstenlinie in Form von „non self-similar“ Datensätzen. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt jedoch, dass die Nutzung von Küstenlinien unterschiedlicher Maßstäbe Abweichungen in der berechneten Sedimentfracht von bis zu 30 % zur Folge haben kann. Es wird daher eine alternative Methode zur Berechnung von Erosionsraten vorgeschlagen, die auf Flächen, nicht auf Längenangaben basiert (z.B. Pufferzonen anstelle von Küstenlinien) und die auf einfache Art und Weise für die Zirkum-Arktis angewandt werden kann. Durch diese Methode ist die Variation der berechneten Erosionsmengen um durchschnittlich 70 % weniger von Maßstabsänderungen betroffen. Damit kann eine deutlich höhere Zuverlässigkeit in den Prognosen erreicht werden. Aktuelle Abschätzungen von Küstenerosionsraten in der Arktis sind spärlich und es gibt nur sehr wenige Langzeitdatensätze, so dass Einschätzungen und Prognosen zu Prozessen im Küstenbereich, insbesondere von dessen Gefährdung, schwierig sind. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll dazu beigetragen, diese Lücke zu schließen, indem der erste Langzeitdatensatz (1951-2006) zu Küstenerosionsraten auf der Bykovsky Halbinsel in Nordost-Sibirien bereitgestellt wird. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass die Küstenlinie auf der Bykovsky Halbinsel, die durch eisreichen Permafrost geprägt ist, im Zeitraum 1951-2006 um durchschnittlich 0,59 m pro Jahr zurückging. Die Rückzugsraten waren dabei äußerst variabel: 97 % aller ermittelten Raten betrugen weniger als 2 m und 81,6 % weniger als 1 m pro Jahr. Ein signifikanter Trend in den Erosionsraten konnte dabei jedoch trotz Analyse von fünf verschiedenen zeitlichen Epochen nicht festgestellt werden. Auch die Gegenüberstellung von Winddatensätzen kann die Erosionsraten nicht erklären. Deshalb stellt diese Arbeit die Bedeutung lokaler Kontrollmechanismen wie Kryostratigraphie, die Nähe der Bykovsky Halbinsel zum Lena-Delta und seinen Süßwasservorkommen sowie die lokale Topographie und deren Einfluss auf Wellengang und Wellenbildung heraus. Innerhalb eisreicher arktischer Küstenabschnitte führt die Interaktion zwischen Küstendynamik und Permafrost zur Ausprägung eindrucksvoller, „C-förmiger“ Depressionen, sogenannten regressiven auftaubedingten Rutschungen, die Längen von bis zu 650 m erreichen können. Auf Herschel Island und am King Point (Yukon Küste, Nordkanada) wurden topographische, sedimentologische und biogeochemische Aufnahmen durchgeführt, um die rezente und vergangene Dynamik dieser Landschaftsformen nachvollziehen zu können. Insbesondere wurden ungestörte Tundrenareale mit ehemals aktiven Rutschungszonen, die heute stabil und wiederbewachsen sind, verglichen. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt, dass diese ehemaligen, heute stabilisierten Rutschungszonen trockenere und für Pflanzenwachstum weniger geeignete Standorte darstellen als ungestörte Bereiche und überdies fundamental andere geotechnische Eigenschaften aufweisen. Radiocarbon-Datierungen und topographische Aufnahmen weisen darauf hin, dass es auf Herschel Island und am King Point bis vor 300 Jahren eine Periode ausgeprägter, auftaubedingter Rutschungsaktivitäten ähnlich denen, die derzeit auf der Insel beobachtet werden können, gegeben haben muss, die zur Ausbildung dieser Oberflächenstrukturen geführt haben. Diese Arbeit stellt auf Grundlage der untersuchten Topographie und Kryostratigraphie die Hypothese auf, dass an der Küstenlinie von Herschel Island ein etwa 250-jähriger Zyklus von Rutschungsaktivitäten existiert und antizipiert eine höhere Frequenz im Auftreten dieser Rutschungsaktivitäten für die Zukunft. Die Vielfalt an Faktoren, die in dieser Arbeit beschrieben wurden, hebt die veränderte Intensität und Frequenz der auf arktische Küsten einwirkenden physikalischen Prozesse hervor. Dadurch werden auch aktuelle Auffassungen zur Bedrohung bestehender Industrie und Infrastruktur in der Arktis hinterfragt. Im Zusammenhang mit dem erwarteten Ausbau der Schifffahrt treibt der zunehmende anthropogene Einfluss die ökonomische und industrielle Entwicklung in arktischen Küstenregionen an, die Gegenstand einer wissenschaftlichen Betrachtung sein sollten. KW - Permafrost KW - Arktis KW - Küstenerosion KW - Thermokarst KW - permafrost KW - arctic KW - coastal erosion KW - thermokarst Y1 - 2008 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-19732 ER -