COASTAL DYNAMICS OF THE PECHORA AND KARA SEAS UNDER CHANGING CLIMATIC CONDITIONS AND HUMAN DISTURBANCES

Abstract

Coastal dynamics monitoring on the key areas of oil and gas development at the Barents and Kara Seas has been carried out by Laboratory of Geoecology of the North at the Faculty of Geography (Lomonosov Moscow State University) together with Zubov State Oceanographic Institute (Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring) for more than 30 years. During this period, an up-to-date monitoring technology, which includes direct field observations, remote sensing and numerical methods, has been developed. The results of such investigations are analyzed on the example of the Ural coast of Baydaratskaya Bay, Kara Sea. The dynamics of thermal-abrasion coasts are directly linked with climate and sea ice extent change. A description of how the wind-wave energy flux and the duration of the ice-free period affect the coastal line retreat is provided, along with a method of the wind-wave energy assessment and its results for the Kara Sea region. We have also evaluated the influence of local anthropogenic impacts on the dynamics of the Arctic coasts. As a result, methods of investigations necessary for obtaining the parameters required for the forecast of the retreat of thermoabrasional coasts have been developed.

Keywords

• coastal dynamics
• cryolithozone
• thermoabrasion
• monitoring
• multitemporal imagery
• climate change
• ice extent
• wave energy
• human impact
• pechora and kara seas