J Jordan

Minimal late Holocene sea level rise in the Chukchi Sea: arctic insensitivity to global change?

Long-term estimates of sea level rise are essential for planning responses to anthropogenic global change. The tectonically stable, unglaciated eastern Chukchi Sea coast has numerous depositional environments for extracting long-term records in the absence of tide gauge data. Radiocarbon ages (n=27) on paleo-marsh beds along several Seward Peninsula lagoons allows the reconstruction of sea level over the last 6000 years in northwest Alaska and indicate a modest sea level rise, 1.5 m, or 0.27 mm year 1 . Neoglacial (1600–200 cal BC) storm deposits from Kotzebue Sound to Barrow are 1–1.5 m below modern storm surge elevations, supporting the inference of a lower eustatic sea level. Our data-constrained sea level curve establishes that the Chukchi Sea responds at a considerably slower rate than other regions of the world, supporting recent models of isostatic response for the arctic. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

An Introduction to the Biocomplexity of Sanak Island, Western Gulf of Alaska

Abstract: The Sanak Biocomplexity Project is a transdisciplinary research effort focused on a small island archipelago 50 km south of the Alaska Peninsula in the western Gulf of Alaska. This team of archaeologists, terrestrial ecologists, social anthropologists, intertidal ecologists, geologists, oceanographers, paleoecologists, and modelers is seeking to understanding the role of the ancient, historic, and modern Aleut in the structure and functioning of local and regional ecosystems. Using techniques ranging from systematic surveys to stable isotope chemistry, long-term shifts in social dynamics and ecosystem structure are present in the context of changing climatic regimes and human impacts. This paper presents a summary of a range of our preliminary findings.

Narratives of Shoreline Erosion and Protection at Shishmaref, Alaska: The Anecdotal and the Analytical

Mitigating, or adapting to, the impacts of environmental change on coastal landscapes, from both social and engineering perspectives, requires accurate baseline data that must be related to geomorphic processes. However, the inherent social and environmental dynamics of the coastal zone set up a contentious situation for decision makers and researchers because of the real, perceived, and stochastic nature of catastrophic threats to human life and property loss. Anecdotal accounts and first person observations generally propel the media and influence governmental policy far more effectively than scientific data. However, claims of extreme erosion rates are more adequately addressed through photogrammetric studies of erosion. Contrary to anecdotal accounts from Shishmaref, Alaska, sequential aerial photographs from 1950 to 2007 reveal that erosion has increased on the south-facing shores of the Chukchi Sea, while prior to 1977, erosion was higher on the north-facing shores such as Shishmaref. In addition, comparisons of property records indicate that high rates of erosion prevailed prior to 1950. Several engineering solutions were attempted in Shishmaref between 1983 and 2003, including gabions and cinder block/boulder/cobble revetments, leading to increased end-around erosion downdrift and an erosion rate twice that of undeveloped, unarmored shorelines. To adapt to heightened erosion rates, societies should either retreat from the shore or confront ever-increasing engineering costs.