Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland
Abstract The majority of freshwater input from Greenland to the global ocean stems from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Currently, almost a quarter of the freshwater flowing from Greenland is derived from catchments that are disconnected from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Despite their importance to the total f...
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crwiley:10.1002/hyp.14413 2024-06-02T08:02:48+00:00 Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland Abermann, Jakob Langley, Kirsty Myreng, Sille M. Rasmussen, Kerstin Petersen, Dorthe TU Graz, Internationale Beziehungen und Mobilitätsprogramme 2021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14413 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hyp.14413 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/hyp.14413 en eng Wiley http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Hydrological Processes volume 35, issue 11 ISSN 0885-6087 1099-1085 journal-article 2021 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14413 2024-05-03T10:46:11Z Abstract The majority of freshwater input from Greenland to the global ocean stems from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Currently, almost a quarter of the freshwater flowing from Greenland is derived from catchments that are disconnected from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Despite their importance to the total freshwater flux and influence on fjord geochemistry, there is relatively little monitoring data available for those catchments and therefore the drivers of regional differences in export are largely unknown. We present a dataset of 12 years of discharge of four catchments less than 15 km apart, that are different in size (between 7 and 32 km 2 ), local glacier coverage (4%–11%) and lake cover (0%–5%). They all drain into Kobbefjord, a well‐studied fjord in West Greenland, near Greenland's capital Nuuk. Between catchments, the magnitude of discharge varies at annual, seasonal and sub‐daily timescales, due to differences in physical catchment properties as well as local climate variability. We find that annual specific discharges vary greatly (between 1.2 and 1.9 m/year on a 12‐year average) due to a longitudinal precipitation gradient from West to East caused by different amount of orographic precipitation shading. The seasonal cycle of discharge (amplitude, timing and minimum flow) differs among the sites mainly due to different exposure to solar radiation as a driver for major snowmelt; the small ice coverage in the catchments plays only a minor role in discharge variability. Dry years generally increase the relative differences in annual specific discharge and no significant temporal trends have been found in the studied catchments. On a sub‐daily timescale, the difference in timing of maximum discharge during fair‐weather days (>80% maximum solar radiation and no precipitation) ranged between 7 and 12 h, which is attributed to differences between the presence and elevation of lakes among the catchments. The response of discharge to major precipitation events is discussed, where a delay of between 5 and 7 h is ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Nuuk Wiley Online Library Arctic Greenland Kobbefjord ENVELOPE(-51.527,-51.527,64.177,64.177) Nuuk ENVELOPE(-52.150,-52.150,68.717,68.717) Hydrological Processes |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Wiley Online Library |
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crwiley |
language |
English |
description |
Abstract The majority of freshwater input from Greenland to the global ocean stems from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Currently, almost a quarter of the freshwater flowing from Greenland is derived from catchments that are disconnected from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Despite their importance to the total freshwater flux and influence on fjord geochemistry, there is relatively little monitoring data available for those catchments and therefore the drivers of regional differences in export are largely unknown. We present a dataset of 12 years of discharge of four catchments less than 15 km apart, that are different in size (between 7 and 32 km 2 ), local glacier coverage (4%–11%) and lake cover (0%–5%). They all drain into Kobbefjord, a well‐studied fjord in West Greenland, near Greenland's capital Nuuk. Between catchments, the magnitude of discharge varies at annual, seasonal and sub‐daily timescales, due to differences in physical catchment properties as well as local climate variability. We find that annual specific discharges vary greatly (between 1.2 and 1.9 m/year on a 12‐year average) due to a longitudinal precipitation gradient from West to East caused by different amount of orographic precipitation shading. The seasonal cycle of discharge (amplitude, timing and minimum flow) differs among the sites mainly due to different exposure to solar radiation as a driver for major snowmelt; the small ice coverage in the catchments plays only a minor role in discharge variability. Dry years generally increase the relative differences in annual specific discharge and no significant temporal trends have been found in the studied catchments. On a sub‐daily timescale, the difference in timing of maximum discharge during fair‐weather days (>80% maximum solar radiation and no precipitation) ranged between 7 and 12 h, which is attributed to differences between the presence and elevation of lakes among the catchments. The response of discharge to major precipitation events is discussed, where a delay of between 5 and 7 h is ... |
author2 |
TU Graz, Internationale Beziehungen und Mobilitätsprogramme |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Abermann, Jakob Langley, Kirsty Myreng, Sille M. Rasmussen, Kerstin Petersen, Dorthe |
spellingShingle |
Abermann, Jakob Langley, Kirsty Myreng, Sille M. Rasmussen, Kerstin Petersen, Dorthe Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland |
author_facet |
Abermann, Jakob Langley, Kirsty Myreng, Sille M. Rasmussen, Kerstin Petersen, Dorthe |
author_sort |
Abermann, Jakob |
title |
Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland |
title_short |
Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland |
title_full |
Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland |
title_fullStr |
Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland |
title_full_unstemmed |
Heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into Kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in Greenland |
title_sort |
heterogeneous timing of freshwater input into kobbefjord, a low‐arctic fjord in greenland |
publisher |
Wiley |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14413 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/hyp.14413 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full-xml/10.1002/hyp.14413 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-51.527,-51.527,64.177,64.177) ENVELOPE(-52.150,-52.150,68.717,68.717) |
geographic |
Arctic Greenland Kobbefjord Nuuk |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Greenland Kobbefjord Nuuk |
genre |
Arctic glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Nuuk |
genre_facet |
Arctic glacier Greenland Ice Sheet Nuuk |
op_source |
Hydrological Processes volume 35, issue 11 ISSN 0885-6087 1099-1085 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14413 |
container_title |
Hydrological Processes |
_version_ |
1800747271062552576 |