Special Issue: Landscape and Seascape Responses to Canada’s Changing Climate

Guest Editors : Thomas James, Sharon Smith, Don Forbes, John Clague, Anne-Marie Leblanc, Andrée Blais-Stevens, and Colleen Mercer-Clarke

Special Issue Scope

The Canadian landscape is a result of geological and tectonic processes that have taken place over billions of years. The surface has been modified, imprinted, and sculpted by fluvial, glacial, cryological, coastal, and marine processes up to the present day, and to an increasing extent by human activities. Surficial sediments and geomorphology contain a record of past climate change, are sensitive to the present-day environment, and will respond to projected climate change through a range of physical and biogeochemical processes. The changing climate, occurring at a more rapid pace in northern latitudes than the global mean, is driving changes in landscape stability, sea levels, the cryosphere (sea ice, permafrost, glaciers, the freeze-thaw cycle), the hydrological cycle (floods and water supply), and extreme events with the potential for profound impacts on human activities in the landscape.

This special issue seeks contributions describing investigations of surface processes to describe and quantify the landscape of Canada and adjacent regions, the changes it is currently undergoing, and projected changes in the face of a changing climate. Contributions are welcomed that describe the effects of these changes on Canada’s natural habitats and biodiversity, built environment, changing hazard exposure and human and community safety, and ensuing climate change adaptation responses. These landscape and seascape changes are conditioned by the geological structure and geodynamics of the Canadian landmass. Contributions are particularly sought for the following topics:

• Canada-wide and regional geomorphological, landscape and ecosystem change and associated geohazards
• Physical and biogeochemical investigations in permafrost-rich terrains, glaciers, and ice caps
• Geological, historical, and instrumental investigations of flooding and drought
• Coastal and nearshore marine and large-lake geoscience, including erosion and sediment deposition, sea- or lake-level change, and storm impacts