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Collapsing Arctic coastlines

Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 6–7 (2017)Cite this article

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A holistic and transdisciplinary approach is urgently required to investigate the physical and socio-economic impacts of collapsing coastlines in the Arctic nearshore zone.

Fluxes from coastal erosion are expected to drastically increase due to the combined effect of declining summer sea-ice cover on the Arctic Ocean, longer and warmer thawing seasons, and the rising sea level allowing waves to hit the coast higher and longer during the ice-free season. Unlike large rivers, where decadal to centennial discharge fluctuations can be constrained to a ±10% window11,12, coastal erosion fluxes have the potential to increase by an order of magnitude on the same timescale13. Such increases would result in drastic impacts on global carbon fluxes and their climate feedbacks, on nearshore food webs, and on local communities, whose survival still relies on marine biological resources.

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Figure 1: Impact of thaw and erosion of Arctic permafrost coasts.

Yves Nowak / Michael Fritz

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Acknowledgements

We thank Y. Nowak (Alfred Wegener Institute) for drafting the figure. The work of M.F. was supported by the Daimler and Benz Foundation. J.E.V. was supported by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research under grant number 863.12.004. The work by H.L. was a contribution to the Helmholtz Young Investigators Group under the contract VH-NG-801.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Periglacial Research, Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Michael Fritz & Hugues Lantuit

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, 3584 CS, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Michael Fritz & Jorien E. Vonk

  3. Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Jorien E. Vonk

  4. Institute for Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Potsdam, 14476, Potsdam, Germany

    Hugues Lantuit

Authors
  1. Michael Fritz
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  3. Hugues Lantuit
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Correspondence to Michael Fritz.

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Fritz, M., Vonk, J. & Lantuit, H. Collapsing Arctic coastlines. Nature Clim Change 7, 6–7 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3188

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