Arctic Frontiers Science

Session 3 – Arctic Coasts in Transition

The pan-Arctic coast is undergoing dramatic interrelated physical, biogeochemical, ecological and socio-economic changes. Climate change-related factors such as increasing air temperatures, changes in precipitation patterns, declining sea ice, melting glaciers, permafrost thaw, coastal erosion and increased frequency of extreme weather events are accelerating the reshaping of Arctic coastlines, and leading to strong changes in fluxes of freshwater and terrestrial material from land to sea. These rapid changes are occurring alongside changes in human activity and land-use along the Arctic coast (e.g. increased tourism, industrial development), transforming coastal ecosystems and creating significant challenges, but also new opportunities, for local communities.

This session aims to connect researchers, indigenous partners and community members who are studying, predicting, modelling and living with these dramatic coastal and nearshore changes across the Arctic. This session will foster knowledge exchange and dialogue on how best to mitigate and adapt to ongoing changes and will help to identify research priorities that encourage the joint production of knowledge to support local efforts to mitigate losses, capitalize on new opportunities, and build resilient communities.

We envision a highly interdisciplinary session, including perspectives from across the Arctic, and welcome contributions on topics including, but not limited to:

• environmental and societal drivers of Arctic coastal change;
• physical change of Arctic coasts–coastal dynamics and rates of change;
• impacts on coastal ecosystems and local Arctic communities;
• supporting sustainable planning, management, mitigation and adaptation measures for an Arctic coast in transition.

The session committee considers arranging a special issue or collection of articles in one of the thematic high-impact peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Frontiers in Marine Science) in conjunction with the session. Abstract submitters had a chance to indicate their intention to contribute to the special issue. More information about this will be available at a later stage.

Session committee

• Amanda Poste | Norwegian Institute for Water Research & UiT–The Arctic University of Norway (Lead)
• Hugues Lantuit | Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research & University of Potsdam, Germany (Co-lead)
• Janne Søreide | University Centre in Svalbard, Norway (Co-lead)
• Ken Dunton | University of Texas Marine Sciences Institute, USA
• Grete Hovelsrud | Nordland Research Institute, Norway
• Gestur Hovgaard | Grønlands Universitet, Greenland
• Maria Jensen | University Centre in Svalbard, Norway
• Gleb Kraev | Yamal-Nenets Center of Arctic Research, Russia
• Alexandra Meyer | University of Vienna, Austria
• Maeve McGovern | Norwegian Institute for Water Research & UiT–The Arctic University of Norway
• Joan Nymand Larsen | University of Akureyri, Iceland
• Paul Renaud | Akvaplan-niva, Norway

A detailed program of the session is presented below, and is based on abstracts accepted ahead of the Arctic Frontiers 2022 conference initially planned for 31 Jan - 3 Feb 2022. The program is subject to modifications after the registration deadline for presenters, which was set on 11 April. 

All attendees to Arctic Frontiers are invited to the Researcher's Reception, hosted by the Norwegian Polar Institute, on Sunday 8th May at 20:00. Join us in the Fram Centre's Lysgården (atrium) for an evening of light entertainment, food, drinks, professional exchange and socialising. If you want to attend, please email to jenny@arcticfrontiers.com

Guidelines for oral presentations and posters is available here.

A step-by-step instruction on how to set up your virtual science booth is available here.