Ward Jones Melissa K, Jones Benjamin M, Nitze Ingmar, Gessner Matthias, Grosse Guido, Bartsch Annett, Bull Diana
Institute of Northern Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, USA.
Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jun 5;15(1):19798. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-04753-3.
Drew Point, an unlithified ice-rich permafrost coastline along the Alaskan Beaufort Sea, is among the most rapidly eroding Arctic coastlines, with an average erosion rate of 19 m/yr from 2007 to 2019. We use 16 high-resolution remote sensing datasets (satellite, airborne, and UAV imagery) to analyze erosion mechanisms (thermal abrasion and denudation) in relation to environmental forcings along a 1.5 km stretch of coastline during the 2018 and 2019 open water seasons. In a striking contrast, 2019 exhibited the highest mean erosion rate (34.5 m) within the 2007-2019 record, while 2018 had the second lowest (11.2 m). Block failure contributed to sub-seasonal erosion rates 6 to 21 times higher than thermal denudation, with staggered block fall timing, lag responses post-storm, and non-storm block collapse influencing overall erosion magnitude and timing. To quantify wind effects, we developed wind sums, a metric combining cumulative wind speed and directional data that can be used as a proxy for integrated storm intensity capable of incorporating lagged responses that correlated strongly with erosion at sub-seasonal and annual scales. Our findings emphasize the dominant role of wind during periods of open water and air temperature during the thaw season in driving permafrost coastline erosion dynamics, while highlighting the importance of spatiotemporally high-resolution datasets for understanding Arctic coastal change dynamics.
德鲁角是阿拉斯加波弗特海沿岸一段未固结的富含冰的永久冻土海岸线，是北极地区侵蚀速度最快的海岸线之一，2007年至2019年期间的平均侵蚀速率为每年19米。我们使用16个高分辨率遥感数据集（卫星、航空和无人机图像），分析了2018年和2019年开放水域季节期间，沿1.5公里长的海岸线，与环境强迫相关的侵蚀机制（热磨蚀和剥蚀）。形成鲜明对比的是，2019年的平均侵蚀速率（34.5米）在2007 - 2019年记录中最高，而2018年则是第二低（11.2米）。块状崩塌导致的亚季节侵蚀速率比热剥蚀高6至21倍，块状崩塌时间交错、风暴后滞后响应以及非风暴期间的块状崩塌影响了总体侵蚀幅度和时间。为了量化风的影响，我们开发了风总量，这是一种结合累积风速和方向数据的指标，可作为综合风暴强度的代理，能够纳入与亚季节和年度尺度侵蚀密切相关的滞后响应。我们的研究结果强调了在开放水域期间风以及解冻季节气温在驱动永久冻土海岸线侵蚀动态方面的主导作用，同时突出了时空高分辨率数据集对于理解北极海岸变化动态的重要性。
