Extreme processes shaping coastal landscapes in rapidly deglaciating Arctic

The observed acceleration of Arctic coastal change is mostly associated with a decreasing sea ice extent and duration that increases shoreline exposure to storm wave energy and erosion. Loss of sea ice is only one of the processes that transform Arctic coastal zone. The functioning of the present‐day Arctic coastal system is also influenced by permafrost degradation, storm‐surge floodings or increased sediment supply from river catchments. Majority of those changes have a strong impact on circum‐polar Arctic coastal communities and their historical (including heritage) and modern infrastructure. Compared with recent research advances obtained along ice-rich permafrost sections of the Alaskan, Yukon and Siberian coastlines, less work has been done on the coastal environments of High Arctic archipelagos including Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya, Franz Joseph Land, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and Greenland. Probably the key important feature distinguishing these environments is the strong and combined imprint of previous continental glaciations and modern glacial activity on coastal morphodynamics, which classifies these coasts as paraglacial. Set against this context, the overarching aim of my talk will be to characterise the response of a coastal systems, developing in Svalbard and Greenland, to post‐LIA climatic conditions that were characterised by enhanced paraglacial processes, in turn triggered by rapid deglaciation.

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