2006 Annual Meeting and Arctic Forum | Abstracts

Coastal Erosion Across Northern Alaska and Community Action

Chien-Lu Ping¹, Torre Jorgenson², Jerry Brown³, Landong Guo⁴, Yuir Shur^5
1Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Palmer Research Center, 533 E. Fireweed Avenue, Palmer, AK, 99645, USA, Phone 907-746-9462, Fax 907-746-2677, pfclp@uaa.alaska.edu
²ABR, Inc., PO Box 80410, Fairbanks, AK, 99708, USA, Phone 907-455-6777, Fax 907-455-6374, tjorgenson@abrinc.com
³International Permafrost Association, PO Box 7, Woods Hole, MA, 02543-0007, USA, Phone 508-457-4982, Fax 508-457-4982, jerrybrown@igc.org
⁴Department of Marine Science, University of Southern Mississippi, 1020 Balch Blvd, Stennis Space Center, MS, 39529, USA, Phone 228-688-1176, Fax 228-688-1121, laodong.guo@usm.edu
⁵Department of Civil and Environmental Sciences, University of Alaska Fairbanks, PO Box 755900, Fairbanks, AK, 99775, USA, Phone 907-474-7067, Fax 907-474-6087, ffys@uaf.edu

Over the past decades the accelerated erosion of the arctic coastline has been the focus of scientists, land managers, policy makers and the native communities located along the arctic coast. The retreating of the coastline along the Beaufort Sea, northern Alaska has been monitored for the past decade. The objectives of this National Science Foundation project are to monitor the erosion rates, to estimate the amount and fate of the organic carbon in the tundra soils and underlying permafrost eroded into the Arctic Ocean, and to involve coastal communities in awareness and partnership development in the research and land-use planning. The estimated average erosion rate along the 1800 miles of Beaufort Sea coast from Pt. Barrow to the Alaska-Canadian boundary is 6 feet per year. This transforms to about 2000 acres of land lost to the Arctic Ocean per year. Based on first year's measurements, the average ice content of the soils measured to 6-foot depth is 55% ice and carbon content of 120 pounds per cubic yard which amounts to 750,000 tons of carbon entered into the biogeochemical processes and cycling in the Beaufort Sea and Arctic Ocean. During the thawing and erosion into the Arctic Ocean, the thawed permafrost soils release CO₂ and methane into the atmosphere and the carbon eroded into the ocean will further decompose and release more gases. The fate of the eroded carbon is being studied through our on-going field and laboratory experiments. A good model of partnership with the native community has been established in the project. Residents of the communities of Barrow, Nuiqsut, and Kaktovik have participated in the monitoring of the coast erosion, provided logistic support, and the researchers present their findings to the local schools and communities.