ALBERT

Description: The soundscape is an important habitat component for marine animals. In the Arctic, marine conditions are changing rapidly due to sea ice loss and increased anthropogenic activities such as shipping, which will influence the soundscape. Here, we assess the contributors to the summer soundscape in the shallow waters of the Mackenzie River estuary within the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area in the western Canadian Arctic, a core summering habitat for beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas Pallas, 1776). We collected passive acoustic data during the summer over four years, and assessed the influence of physical variables, beluga whale vocalizations, and boat noise on sound pressure levels in three frequency bands (low: 0.2-1 kHz; medium: 1-10 kHz high: 10-48 kHz) to quantify the soundscape. Wind speed, wave height, beluga vocalizations, and boat noise were all large contributors to the soundscape in various frequency bands. The soundscape varied to a lesser degree between sites, time of day, and with tide height, but remained relatively constant between years. This study is the first detailed description of a shallow summer soundscape in the western Canadian Arctic, an important habitat for beluga whales, and can be used as a baseline to monitor future changes during this season.

Description: Vessel traffic negatively affects marine mammals by causing behavioural disturbance, acoustic masking, contamination (i.e., oil spills), and ship strikes. Few studies have examined the effects of vessels on marine mammals in the Arctic, but beluga whales appear to be especially sensitive to vessel traffic. We examine how the vocalizations of belugas are impacted by vessel traffic in the Tarium Niryutait Marine Protected Area in the Mackenzie River estuary of the western Canadian Arctic. Between one and four acoustic recorders were deployed between June and August each year between 2015 and 2018 near the only shipping channel at this site. We examined beluga vocalizations from acoustic recordings over four summers and assessed how the distance to the nearest vessel passing the acoustic recorder affected the number of vocalizations. Beluga vocalizations within the range of the acoustic recorder decreased significantly when vessels were within 5 km of the acoustic recorder. This result suggests either that belugas are avoiding the vessel or that they reduce their vocalization in response to vessel traffic. Future work is needed to assess exactly how belugas are reacting to vessel traffic in this area and what the long-term consequences of these reactions are. Management measures for reducing these impacts must be carefully considered, especially since these vessels are very restricted in where they can travel, and many of the vessels are necessary for the livelihoods of local communities.

Description: Above average warming in the Arctic is leading to increasing permafrost temperatures and a reduction in sea ice cover, which are expected to contribute to increasing rates of Arctic coastal erosion and sediment release. We studied a 1.5 km stretch of coastline off Richard’s Island, Northwest Territories, Canada, consisting of multiple retrogressive thaw slumps (RTSs) with varying degrees of activity over a one-year period. Multi-temporal 2D and 3D geomorphic analysis was based on unmanned aerial vehicle-Structure-from-Motion (UAV-SfM) data sets collected in 2018 and 2019. Over the observation period, −3.9 m and −1.1 m of planimetric cliff edge and toe retreat occurred, respectively, and corresponded to an average volumetric change of 8.1 m3 m−1. The accuracy of UAV-SfM-derived digital elevation models was tested using 12 data collection and processing scenarios, testing the influence of off-nadir camera angle, flight pattern, and georeferencing strategy. We found that oblique imaging and georeferencing strategy had a large influence on vertical accuracy and variability across the study site and has implications for studying volumetric changes in RTSs. This study furthers the geomorphological understanding of RTS processes by highlighting the complex relationship between planimetric and volumetric change along rapidly retreating Arctic coasts, and demonstrates advancements in measurement practices for UAV-SfM data sets.

Description: Two decades (2000-2019) of the landfast ice properties in the Beaufort Sea region in the Canadian Arctic were analyzed at 250-m spatial resolution from two sources: 1) monthly maps derived at the Canada Centre for Remote Sensing from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer clear-sky satellite image composites; 2) Canadian Ice Service charts. Detailed comparisons have been conducted for the landfast ice spatial extent, the water depth at and the distance to the outer seaward edge from the coast in four sub-regions: 1) Alaska coast; 2) Barter Island to Herschel Island; 3) Mackenzie Bay; 4) Richards Island to Cape Bathurst. The results from both sources demonstrate good agreement. The average spatial extent for the entire region over the April-June period is 48.5 (±5.0)×103 km2 from Canadian Ice Service data vs 45.1 (±6.1)×103 km2 from satellite data used in this study (7.0% difference). The correlation coefficient for April-June is 0.73 (p = 2.91×10-4). The long term linear trends of the April-June spatial extent since 2000 demonstrated statistically significant decline: -4.45 (±1.69)×103 km2/decade and -4.73 (±2.17)×103 km2/decade from Canadian Ice Service and satellite data respectively. The landfast ice in the Beaufort Sea region showed the general tendency for an earlier break-up, later onset and longer ice-free period. The break-up date has decreased by 7.6 days/decade in the Mackenzie Bay region. The western part of the study area did not demonstrate statistically significant changes since 2000.

Description: Arctic permafrost coasts are major carbon (Schuur et al., 2015) and mercury pools (Schuster et al., 2018). They represent about 34% of the Earth’s coastline, with long sections affected by high erosion rates (Fritz et al, 2017), increasingly threatening coastal communities. Year-round reduction in Arctic sea ice is forecasted and by the end of the 21st century, models indicate a decrease in sea ice area from 43 to 94% in September and from 8 to 34% in February (IPCC, 2014). An increase of the sea-ice free season leads to a longer exposure of coasts to wave action. Further, climate warming is also expected to modify the contribution of terrestrial erosion (Fritz et al., 2015, Ramage et al., 2018, Irrgang et al., 2018). Within the project EU Horizon2020 project NUNATARYUK, we are updating the mapping of the Arctic coast, with the Canadian Beaufort coast as a case-study. The surveying methodology includes: i. a high resolution update of the coastline mapping and change rates using Pleiades (CNES) satellite acquisitions from 2018, ii. a survey using RTK-UAV aerial imagery of long-term monitoring sites from the Canada-US border to King Point, and iii. the experimental use of TerraSAR-X staring spotlight scenes at key sites to monitor intraseasonal dynamics of cliff edge retreat. This research is funded by the EC H2020 Project NUNATARYUK. Support on remote sensing imagery access by the WMO Polar Space Task Group.

Description: Climate models indicate the highest warming rates for the high latitudes, especially for the Arctic. Recent estimates indicate that the release of previously frozen organic carbon and its transformation into greenhouse gases may push global climate warming above the 1.5 °C targeted in the COP21 Paris Agreement (Schuur et al., 2015). Despite efforts to include carbon fluxes from permafrost degradation in climate models, the lateral fluxes of organic matter from land to sea are still not accounted for (Vonk and Gustafsson, 2013). Arctic permafrost coasts are major carbon (Schuur et al., 2015) and mercury pools (Schuster et al 2018) and represent about 34% of Earth’s coastline, with large sectors affected by significant erosion rates (Fritz et al, 2017). Year-round reduction in Arctic sea ice is forecasted and by the end of the 21st century, models indicate a decrease in sea ice area ranging from 43 to 94% in September and from 8 to 34% in February (IPCC, 2014). An increase of the sea-ice free season duration will expose coasts to wave action, extending the erosion into the shoulder seasons. Changing climate will also modify the contribution of terrestrial erosion, e.g. thermokarst, gully erosion and retrogressive thaw slumps (Fritz et al., 2015, Ramage et al 2017, 2018, Irrgang et al 2018). Understanding the current processes and both inter- and intra-annual dynamics of coastal erosion in the Arctic is essential to better predict future coastal erosion rates and hence to improve carbon and contaminant flux estimates. Following previous research by the Geological Research of Canada and the Alfred Wegener Institute, in July-August 2018, we resurveyed several long-term monitoring sites from the Canada-US border to King Point: Border, Clarence, Nunaluk, Herschel’s slumps A, B, C, D and Tina’s, Stokes West, Kay Point and King Point. Traditionally the repeat surveys were conducted using a DGPS survey along fixed transects that cross-cutted each site. In 2018, we have partially repeated the DGPS surveying and surveyed all sites with a SenseFly RTK ebee UAV with a S.O.D.A. camera and a Trimble R4 base station, allowing for preliminary model accuracies of ci. 10 cm. The poster shows the results of the 2018 surveys and first comparisons with data from previous seasons, including a discussion of the main results and methodological adjustments that may be needed for the 2019 surveys. This research is integrated in the H2020 European Union project Nunataryuk - Permafrost thaw and the changing Arctic coast, science for socioeconomic adaptation.

Description: Permafrost coasts make up roughly one third of all coasts worldwide. Their erosion leads to the release of previously locked organic carbon, changes in ecosystems and the destruction of cultural heritage, infrastructure and whole communities. Since rapid environmental changes lead to an intensification of Arctic coastal dynamics, it is of great importance to adequately quantify current and future coastal changes. However, the remoteness of the Arctic and scarcity of data limit our understanding of coastal dynamics at a pan-Arctic scale and prohibit us from getting a complete picture of the diversity of impacts on the human and natural environment. In a joint effort of the EU project NUNATARYUK and the NSF project PerCS-Net, we seek to close this knowledge gap by collecting and analyzing all accessible high-resolution shoreline position data for the Arctic coastline. These datasets include geographical coordinates combined with coastal positions derived from archived data, surveying data, air and space born remote sensing products, or LiDAR products. The compilation of this unique dataset will enable us to reach unprecedented data coverage and will allow us a first insight into the magnitude and trends of shoreline changes on a pan-Arctic scale with locally highly resolved temporal and spatial changes in shoreline dynamics. By comparing consistently derived shoreline change data from all over the Arctic we expect that the trajectory of coastal change in the Arctic becomes evident. A synthesis of some initial results will be presented in the 2020 Arctic Report Card on Arctic Coastal Dynamics. This initiative is an ongoing effort – new data contributions are welcome!

Description: Arctic permafrost coasts are major carbon (Schuur et al., 2015) and mercury pools (Schuster et al 2018) and represent about 34% of Earth's coastline, with large sectors affected by high erosion rates (Fritz et al, 2017), increasingly affecting coastal communities. Year-round reduction in Arctic sea ice is forecasted and by the end of the 21st century, models indicate a decrease in sea ice area from 43 to 94% in September and from 8 to 34% in February (IPCC, 2014). An increase of the sea-ice free season duration will further expose coasts to wave action, with changing climate also modifying the contribution of terrestrial erosion (Fritz et al., 2015, Ramage et al 2018, Irrgang et al 2018). Within the project NUNATARYUK, we are updating the mapping of the Arctic coast and assessing the hazard exposure of communities, with the Beaufort Sea as a case-study. The surveying methodology includes: i. a high resolution update of the coastline mapping and change rates using Pleiades (CNES) satellite acquisitions from 2018, ii. a survey using RTK-UAV aerial imagery of long-term monitoring sites from the CanadaUS border to King Point, as well as sites in Amundsen Bay, and iii. ultra high-resolution surveys of coastal settlements using RTK-UAV in collaboration with communities aiming at improving coastal hazard assessment (e.g. Tuktoyaktuk and Paulatuk). This presentation shows the updates from this integrated coastal assessment with the field data from the summer of 2019.