The greatest changes in landforms and Quaternary deposits have occurred due to the glaciers' recession, as described above. New landforms have appeared. Accumulation landforms appeared in the front of glaciers and around glacier tongues in their marginal zones, i.e. on lowlands and valley floors abandoned by glaciers and in their fore-fields situated below the marginal zones (i.e. beyond the former reach of the glaciers, Figs 10–14). Erosion landforms, apart from pro-glacial river incisions (Fig. 15), prevail on the steep slopes of valleys and mountain massifs. Hence, the recession of the upper parts of glaciers results almost exclusively in erosion landforms, and the recession of the lower parts of glaciers leaves both erosion and accumulation landforms behind (with predominance of the latter).

The following new ice-free landforms have been observed: rocky and rock-and-weathering slopes, valley incisions (cut by glacial waters) of different types (gullies, gorges), and roche moutonnées. The decrease in glacier thickness uncovers nunatak slopes from top to bottom. The continuation of this process leads to the joining of nunataks into new mountain ridges or ranges. Once the ice is gone, these erosion landforms undergo mostly non-glacial denudation-erosion changes, especially if they are located on steep slopes and in significantly inclined upper parts of valleys. However, some of them, especially at the foot of the slope and in the lower parts of valleys, are being covered by new deposits, first of all moraine or glacifluvial deposits, but also talus, weathering and fluvial deposits.

Sørkapp Land glaciation is clearly Artic-type for the following two reasons:

1. 1) common presence of permafrost, which is predominantly frozen solid rock and only in the Quaternary deposits consists of ice mixed with rock material of variable granulation,

2. 2) very weak influence of altitude (above sea level) on the distribution and extent of glaciers.

The northern part of western Sørkapp Land (Fig. 3) includes ca. 50 km2 of mountains (seven massifs arranged into two ridges with Lisbetdalen valley between them) without glaciers during all of the Holocene, in spite of the fact that their quite extensive and flattened peaks reach an elevation of 640 m (Ziaja 1992, 1999). This is due to the exceptional local climate described earlier (equally high or lower areas situated a few kilometers further to the east and southeast have been superficially glaciated to a substantial degree).

These areas with expansive glaciers flowing from the glaciated peninsula's interior to the west and south, and with small glaciers on coastal mountain massifs, are not part of western Sørkapp Land. The extent of each glacier marks the natural boundary of the western region. A retreat of this extent is simply a shift of this boundary to the east.

Zdzisław Czeppe, a physical geographer, viewed Sørkapp Land as a potential geographic area for scientific research. He was a participant of the Polish expedition during the 3rd International Geophysical Year, which wintered on the northern coast of Hornsund Fjord on Isbjørnhamna bay in 1957–1958, and the summer expeditions of 1959 and 1960. Sørkapp Land, located south of the fjord, appeared to be an ideal place for research, which unfortunately could not be carried out at the time. However, he returned to western Sørkapp Land as a professor and the leader of Jagiellonian University expeditions in 1980 and 1981. He created a program of interdisciplinary research for this area, which was executed by the University's summer expeditions in the 1980s. Landscape analysis played the most important role in the research of abiotic environmental features, whereas botanical analysis was crucial in the research of biotic features. The former was carried out in 1981–1984 and 1986, and the latter in 1982 and 1985. Six physical geographers (Z. Czeppe, P. Gębica, K. Kalicki, M. Kuczek, P. Libelt and W. Ziaja) took part in field investigations of landscape, and two botanists (E. Dubiel and M. Olech) took part in field investigations of vegetation. Their published results constitute the first relatively complete and reasonably detailed (maps at a scale of 1 : 25 000–1 : 50 000) characterization of the natural environment of the area.

During the 1982 and 1985 summer seasons, extensive vegetation research was carried out in northwest Sørkapp Land. The study area included marine terraces along the northern and western shores of Sørkapp Land, from the Lisbetelva river to the Vinda river, Hohenlohefjellet (614 m), as well as the western slopes of Sergeijevfjellet and Lidfjellet.

Western Sørkapp Land is diverse in terms of habitat conditions such as: topography, bedrock, hydrological and edaphic relationships and microclimate. Lichens and bryophytes are predominant along with a few flowering plants, creating a complex mosaic of vegetation (Fig. 4).

Phytosociological research led to the identification of 28 vegetation units in the study area. The basis for the identification was 285 phytosociological relevés, performed according to the Braun-Blanquet (1964) method. Relevés were taken at different locations in order to obtain a full picture of the variety of vegetation. Complete phytosociological tables were created for 28 plant communities (Dubiel, Olech 1990). Plant communities were selected on the basis of their floristic characteristics. In some cases, the presence of dominant species strongly influencing the physiognomy of patches was considered more important. A short description of the habitat as well as comments on the distribution were added to the descriptions of vegetation. Names of differential species and their ecological scale were given for each community.

On the basis of tundra vegetation mapping repeated after 25 years, major changes in the structure of several plant communities and their extent were recorded. First of all, a decrease in species diversity is visible, leading to more homogenous vegetation. This process is more noticeable in dry areas, whereas in wet areas, the changes are smaller. One of the most spectacular changes was a complete degradation of the fruticose ground lichen population, mainly in the Flavocetraria nivalis – Cladonia rangiferina community.

It seems necessary to try to predict the direction of future vegetation changes in Sørkapp Land. It is probable that the reindeer population in western Sørkapp Land will not decrease over the next few years. Climate change scenarios indicate a high probability of further warming of the climate.

The results of research from other parts of the Arctic can provide necessary information for estimating future changes. It is assumed that in the areas grazed by reindeer, graminoids usually increase (Elvebakk 1997). This is also true in lichen-dominated plant communities (Klein 1968; Post, Klein 1999) and they are also predicted to increase under global warming scenarios (Walker et al. 2006). On the other hand, macrolichens, although important for the functioning and biodiversity of cold northern ecosystems, are predicted to be negatively affected by climate change (Cornelissen et al. 2001).

Complex landscape field mapping at a scale of 1 : 25 000 was the basic method of surveying the study area in the 1980s. A total of 1,514 small basic landscape units (so-called geocomplexes of the uroczysko range) were mapped across an area of ca. 94 km2. An old Norwegian topographic map at a scale of 1 : 100 000 (Sørkapp sheet), current for 1936 and enlarged fourfold, was used as a base map. Each individual landscape unit was drawn on the map, numbered and described on a special separate form. The demarcation criteria consisted of spatial changes in environmental and landscape features. The following characteristics were analyzed: elevation, slope gradient and exposure, lithostratigraphy, tectonics (dip of the rock strata), Quaternary deposits (genesis, granulation, thickness), morphogenesis, micro-relief, geomorphic processes, meso-climate (based on exposure, shadowing and persistence of snow patches), bodies of water and vegetation (density and composition, division into vascular plants, mosses and lichens). The mapping covered virtually all of the area that had not been covered by glaciers during the Holocene in western Sørkapp Land. The landscape units were grouped into several dozen types, which made it possible to create detailed maps of the landscape structure of the area (Czeppe, Ziaja 1985; Kuczek, Ziaja 1990; Ziaja 1991, 1992).

Why is Sørkapp Land, and specifically western Sørkapp Land, such an attractive area for scientific research?

The answer is: Due to its geographic location and natural environmental features that make it unique in this part of the Arctic.

Sørkapp Land is the southern peninsula of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard Archipelago. The island's east-west width is 150–200 km in its northern part. The island narrows to the south in the shape of a wedge between the Barents Sea in the east and the Greenland Sea in the west (Fig. 1). Their waters differ in temperature, which affects local climate conditions. The eastern coast is affected by the cold East Spitsbergen Current, which flows from the Arctic interior towards the south. This results in extensive glaciation and the lack of continuous vegetation. On the other hand, the western coast is warmed from the south by the West Spitsbergen Current, the last branch of the Gulf Stream. This produces relatively little glaciation and allows for a continuous tundra. However, southern winds cause a narrow belt of the cold current's waters to separate the warm current from the coast. Moreover, the two coasts differ in terms of geological structure and relief. In the east, the mountains are built of non-resistant Cretaceous and Tertiary rocks that fall down directly into the sea or onto narrow coastal lowlands (less than 1 km wide) at some locations.