Call for Abstracts
Session C 15: The Arctic Ocean Coast: Where the Land, Sea, and Lower
Atmosphere Meet
American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2006 Fall Meeting
11-15 December 2006
San Francisco, California
Abstract Submission Deadlines:
Friday, 1 September 2006 (mail)
Thursday, 7 September 2006 (online)
For further information or to submit an abstract, please visit:
http://www.agu.org/meetings/fm06/?content=search&show=detail&sessid=259
Please consider submitting a presentation to the following special
session at this year's American Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall Meeting:
C 15: The Arctic Ocean Coast: Where the Land, Sea, and Lower Atmosphere
Meet
The session seeks to unite a diverse multi-disciplinary group of
presenters and attendees focused toward a greater understanding of
ongoing processes along the Arctic Ocean coast.
Abstract submission is now open and abstracts must be received by AGU
via mail by Friday, 1 September 2006 or online by Thursday, 7 September
2006.
Session Description:
The coastal zone of the Arctic Ocean is undergoing dynamic modification
in response to arctic environmental change. Increased coastline erosion,
decreased summer sea ice extent, altered precipitation patterns, changes
in river discharge, expansion of vegetation, and wide seasonal ranges in
surface runoff biogeochemistry have been documented throughout the
Arctic. Many other proxies for change have been recently reported.
Fluxes between the land, sea, and lower atmosphere include water,
carbon, nitrogen, and far traveled contaminants that can be used as
tracers to better understand the varied components of the arctic coastal
system. As a complex transition zone between the land and sea, the
response of the Arctic Ocean coast to climatic perturbations will likely
be difficult to predict or accurately quantify. Further, interactions
between the land and sea are not relegated to the coastal zone itself as
rivers can expand the spatial extents of the coastal margin thousands of
kilometers inland and ocean currents can extend the terrestrial regime
equally far out to sea. Increasingly, studies of the arctic coastal
system are multi-disciplinary in nature and this presents a challenge as
researchers seeking system wide understanding must collaborate across
many fields.
The overarching goal of this session is to assemble a wide range of
physical, cryospherical, and biological scientists to initiate open
discussion across the many disciplines currently working along the
Arctic Ocean coast. To achieve this goal, this session will focus on: 1)
erosion, carbon dynamics, and the nutrient exchange between the land and
sea; 2) changing sea ice and permafrost extents and their controls on
land-sea exchange; 3) surface water biogeochemistry in a changing
precipitation regime; and 4) pathways of entry for far traveled
contaminants to the Arctic and their anticipated responses to changes
within the system. Efforts synthesizing results across multiple
disciplines are highly encouraged as the complexity of the Arctic Ocean
coastal system demands a multi-disciplinary approach. Further, projects
addressing scales ranging from vegetation plots to watersheds to the
panarctic are encouraged so that a better understanding of the links
between small components and the greater system can be explored.
Conveners:
Thomas A. Douglas
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
Post Office Box 35170
Fort Wainwright, AK 99703
Phone: 907-353-9555
E-mail: thomas.a.douglas [at] erdc.usace.army.mil
James McClelland
Marine Science Institute
750 Channel View Drive
Port Aransas, TX 78373
Phone: 361-749-6756
E-mail: <jimm [at] utmsi.utexas.edu
Matthew Sturm
Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
Post Office Box 35170
Fort Wainwright, AK 99703
Phone: 907-353-5183
E-mail: Matthew.Sturm [at] erdc.usace.army.mil