Northern Polar Coastal Wetlands: Development, Structure, and Land Use

Abstract Northern Polar coastal wetlands contain habitats of great importance to wildlife and human populations. Their distribution is determined by underlying geoecological events and processes. They are characterized by cold climate and the presence of ice (sea ice and permafrost) and are influenced by other biotic and abiotic processes (sedimentation, salinity, tidal action, and freshwater input). Pleistocene ice sheets have molded the landscape, and their retreat and subsequent isostatic uplift have led to continuing postglacial local land emersion. Diversity of Arctic wetland plants and fauna is relatively low and characterized by few, widely distributed species; diversity decreases at higher latitudes. On the Russian Arctic coast, progressive deglaciation has favored northward migration of plants from Atlantic/European sources to western areas and Pacific/American ones to eastern areas. Arctic wetlands are of major importance for waterbirds as breeding and migration areas; they are vulnerable to a wide variety of environmental changes, especially climatic change.