Abstract Submission Deadline: Monday, 15 December 2008

For further information, please visit the website: http://www.imr.no/assw2009

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For the first time, the Arctic Science Summit Week (ASSW) will include not only annual meetings of the arctic organizations, but also an exciting international science symposium. The symposium will take place 24-26 March 2009. Annual meetings are scheduled to take place 22-23 and 27-28 March 2009. Abstracts are now being accepted for the session "Coastal Environments as a Link Between Land and Sea in the Arctic." The deadline for abstract submission is Monday, 15 December 2008.

Session Description:
The coastal zone features some of the most dramatic changes occurring in the Arctic. Decreasing sea ice cover, destabilization of permafrost systems and increased exposure of the coast to storms lead to the rapid rearrangement of already dynamic systems at the land-sea interface.
Changes include both changing environmental conditions, bearing threats and options for human welfare and biodiversity, as well as new forms of land and sea use such as enhanced access to resource extraction, or the increasing ship traffic along the coast. Despite the obvious linkages between terrestrial, atmospheric, marine environments, and society occurring around the arctic coastline, connections between these branches of science are scarce.

The session therefore provides a forum for discussions of recent developments in the study of physical, biological and human dynamics along polar coasts, in the near-shore zone, on the shelf, and in the backshore area. The session encourages submissions integrating several disciplines over the entire coastal tract: investigation of material and energy exchanges at the land-ocean interface driven by near-shore and offshore currents, tides, and surface and internal waves, as well as ecological, socio-economic, biogeochemical, and zoological studies centered around the coastal environment. Submissions on subaerial and subsea permafrost occurrence and evolution in the coastal zone are also welcome. The abstract submission deadline for this and all other sessions is Monday, 15 December 2008.

For further information on the details on the scope of this session, please go to: http://www.imr.no/assw2009/sessions/coastal_environments

Or contact the session conveners:
Hugues Lantuit
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
Email: Hugues.Lantuit@awi.de

Pier Paul Overduin
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany
Email: Paul.Overduin@awi.de

Karen Frey
Graduate School of Geography, Clark University
Email: kfrey@clarku.edu