This slim volume (92 pages) reports on approximately 25 years of landscape change in Sørkapp Land, the southern peninsula of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard Archipelago. Field research was conducted by a team of Polish scientists from Jagiellonian University, the legacy of an initial visit to the region by physical geographer Zdzislaw Czeppe during the International Geophysical Year 1957–1958. His interest in the research potential of the area was piqued, which led to a series of interdisciplinary summer expeditions beginning in 1980. The emphasis was on mapping abiotic and biotic features at a large scale (1:25 000 – 1:50 000). This resulted in a baseline of spatially detailed data that another team was able to repeat in an effort to detect change after another quarter century had passed. The 2008 team included two members of the original expeditions in the early 1980’s.
The Introduction briefly outlines the Polish team's interest and timeline of activities. The slightly longer sub-section Study area gives a concise overview of the peninsula's geography, Pleistocene natural history and rationale for establishing baseline studies here, namely relatively easy access. The rest of the book consists of four sections: Methods and materials, Components of natural environment, Environmental and landscape changes, and Conclusions and prognosis for environmental change. The second section comprises nearly half of the total text (38 pages) and describes abiotic features: bedrock, climate, glaciation, terrain relief and waters. Landscape units were first mapped utilising panchromatic air photos from 1961. Later infrared photos, digital elevation models and high-resolution satellite imagery (SPOT, ASTER), from 1990 onward, were used to track changes in land cover, including glacial surface area and elevation. 28 vegetation units were mapped based on relevés (a unit of plant community or vegetation analysis in the European phytosociological tradition) using the Braun-Blanquet method, but phytosociological tables of the floristics are not included. The detected changes in landscapes, glacier elevation and vegetation are presented in a set of six maps (scale 1:50 000 – 1:75 000)
The latter half of the book is devoted to describing the changes detected and putting them into context. Average winter air temperatures have warmed by circa 2°C over a 20-year period from the decade 1980–1989 to the decade ending in 2009. Not surprisingly, the mass balance of glaciers has generally decreased and they have receded in extent. Another factor, which the authors emphasise, is the rapid growth of the reindeer population in the 1990s. The reason given is the establishment of South Spitsbergen National Park in 1973 and a cessation of hunting activities. As of 2008, grazing and trampling by some 170 reindeer was considered a ‘new geomorphic feature affecting large areas of western Sørkapp Land’ (page 64). No figure is given for the amount of surface area affected, but the photo in Fig. 21 (page 66) showing ‘destruction’ of small sand dunes makes the overall impact within the landscape appear to be rather small.
A similar bias colours the text on plant communities (page 75–81), where observed shifts in vegetation cover and composition attributed to reindeer over the past 25 years are described using terms like ‘destruction’ and ‘destroyed.’ Whenever reindeer are present they undeniably affect vegetation cover, yet their populations in the high Arctic have waxed and waned throughout the Holocene without human intervention (Klein Reference Klein1999). The valuing of inactive versus active sand dunes and certain vegetation types (that is those rich in fruticose lichens) over others in the context of a growing population of reindeer is highly subjective. On the Nordic mainland, the politics of reindeer management are fierce, and it has rightly been pointed out that the impacts of grazing (and associated trampling) vary, sometimes starkly, in the eye of the beholder (Mysterud Reference Mysterud2006; van der Wal Reference van der Wal2006). Given the book's strong focus on recent climate warming as an overarching driver of landscape change, it would have been useful to include some reference to the potential influence of climate, or lack thereof, on reindeer population dynamics (see for example Tyler Reference Tyler2010).
The authors conclude with very short assessments of Landscape development and Vegetation changes, less than one page each. It is assumed that progressive warming will lead to the retreat and eventual disappearance of several glacier tongues. The message on vegetation is a bit more muddled, partly because of the strong bias against reindeer cited above. However, the authors also presume an ‘increase of graminoids in the coming years’ (page 87) based on the literature. This is curious since the section on changes in plant communities since 2008 hardly mentions changes among graminoids at all.
The authors do not declare the intended audience of the book. It is probably most useful as an example of how older, carefully collected datasets on high Arctic land cover can be made relevant for the 21st century. The techniques involved can readily be learned and applied by undergraduates in geography interested in glacial and periglacial geomorphology. However, students of ecology should look elsewhere for understanding contemporary drivers of reindeer population dynamics and their implications for vegetation changes.
