Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021
Despite a long-term thinning trend in freshwater ice in northern Alaska, cold low-snow cover winters can still emerge to grow thick ice. In 2021, we observed abnormally thick ice by winter's end on lakes and rivers throughout the Fish Creek Watershed in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska....
Published in: | Arctic Science |
---|---|
Main Authors: | , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Canadian Science Publishing
2023
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0027 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/as-2022-0027 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/as-2022-0027 |
id |
crcansciencepubl:10.1139/as-2022-0027 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
crcansciencepubl:10.1139/as-2022-0027 2023-12-17T10:22:53+01:00 Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021 Arp, Christopher D. Engram, Melanie Bondurant, Allen C. Drew, Katie A. 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0027 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/as-2022-0027 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/as-2022-0027 en eng Canadian Science Publishing https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_GB Arctic Science volume 9, issue 2, page 497-505 ISSN 2368-7460 General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science journal-article 2023 crcansciencepubl https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0027 2023-11-19T13:39:00Z Despite a long-term thinning trend in freshwater ice in northern Alaska, cold low-snow cover winters can still emerge to grow thick ice. In 2021, we observed abnormally thick ice by winter's end on lakes and rivers throughout the Fish Creek Watershed in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. This recent and anomalous winter presented an opportunity to assess how such conditions, more typical of many decades previous, affected aquatic habitat and winter water supply. Observed maximum ice thickness in 2021 of 1.9 m closely matched low-snow ice growth simulations, whereas previous records averaged 1.5 m and more closely matched high-snow ice growth simulations. The resulting extent of bedfast lake ice from late winter synthetic aperture radar (SAR) analysis in 2021 was the highest on record since 1992. This SAR analysis suggests a 33% reduction in liquid water below ice by lake surface area compared with the recent thin-ice winter of 2018 (1.2 m). Together, these results help place the cold, low-snow winter of 2020–2021 in context of the long-term trend toward warmer, snowier winters that appear to becoming more common in Arctic Alaska. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Arctic Alaska Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) Arctic Arctic Science |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Canadian Science Publishing (via Crossref) |
op_collection_id |
crcansciencepubl |
language |
English |
topic |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science |
spellingShingle |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science Arp, Christopher D. Engram, Melanie Bondurant, Allen C. Drew, Katie A. Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021 |
topic_facet |
General Earth and Planetary Sciences General Agricultural and Biological Sciences General Environmental Science |
description |
Despite a long-term thinning trend in freshwater ice in northern Alaska, cold low-snow cover winters can still emerge to grow thick ice. In 2021, we observed abnormally thick ice by winter's end on lakes and rivers throughout the Fish Creek Watershed in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. This recent and anomalous winter presented an opportunity to assess how such conditions, more typical of many decades previous, affected aquatic habitat and winter water supply. Observed maximum ice thickness in 2021 of 1.9 m closely matched low-snow ice growth simulations, whereas previous records averaged 1.5 m and more closely matched high-snow ice growth simulations. The resulting extent of bedfast lake ice from late winter synthetic aperture radar (SAR) analysis in 2021 was the highest on record since 1992. This SAR analysis suggests a 33% reduction in liquid water below ice by lake surface area compared with the recent thin-ice winter of 2018 (1.2 m). Together, these results help place the cold, low-snow winter of 2020–2021 in context of the long-term trend toward warmer, snowier winters that appear to becoming more common in Arctic Alaska. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Arp, Christopher D. Engram, Melanie Bondurant, Allen C. Drew, Katie A. |
author_facet |
Arp, Christopher D. Engram, Melanie Bondurant, Allen C. Drew, Katie A. |
author_sort |
Arp, Christopher D. |
title |
Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021 |
title_short |
Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021 |
title_full |
Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021 |
title_fullStr |
Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) during the winter of 2020–2021 |
title_sort |
unusually thick freshwater ice and its impacts on aquatic resources in the national petroleum reserve in alaska (npr-a) during the winter of 2020–2021 |
publisher |
Canadian Science Publishing |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0027 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1139/as-2022-0027 https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/as-2022-0027 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Arctic Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Arctic Alaska |
op_source |
Arctic Science volume 9, issue 2, page 497-505 ISSN 2368-7460 |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en_GB |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1139/as-2022-0027 |
container_title |
Arctic Science |
_version_ |
1785554188435980288 |