K.D. Nelson Lecture Series: Julia Guimond

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences presents the K.D. Nelson Lecture Series featuring speaker Julia Guimond. Her talk is titled: “Aquifer-ocean interactions as catalysts of coastal arctic change.”

Abstract:

Arctic coastlines are in rapid transition due to the combined effects of thawing permafrost, decreasing sea ice, and rising sea levels. While advancements in remote sensing have enabled robust assessments of surficial coastal change, understanding of coastal Arctic groundwater dynamics and feedbacks with climate change is lacking, limiting capacity to predict coastal Arctic conditions in a changing climate. Along mid- and low-latitude coastlines, groundwater plays a critical role in mediating coastal ecosystem function and nearshore biogeochemistry. While many processes mediating groundwater flow transcend coastlines globally, high-latitude coastlines have added complexity associated with the presence of permafrost, seasonal ground ice and seasonal sea ice that shape Arctic coastal regions. In this seminar, I will discuss recent field and numerical modeling work investigating coastal Arctic groundwater flow and two-way exchange with the ocean. Specifically, I will discuss drivers of coastal groundwater discharge and saltwater intrusion, as well as the effects of this land-sea exchange on permafrost and ecosystems. Together, these studies will highlight the role of aquifer-ocean interactions in accelerating coastal change and shaping future Arctic coastlines.