Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019
Ice-marginal lakes impact glacier mass balance, water resources, and ecosystem dynamics, and can produce catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) via sudden drainage. Multitemporal inventories of ice-marginal lakes are a critical first step in understanding the drivers of historic change, p...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tcd94644 2023-05-15T16:20:43+02:00 Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019 Rick, Brianna McGrath, Daniel Armstrong, William McCoy, Scott W. 2021-06-08 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-143 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-143/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-2021-143 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-143/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2021 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-143 2021-06-14T16:22:15Z Ice-marginal lakes impact glacier mass balance, water resources, and ecosystem dynamics, and can produce catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) via sudden drainage. Multitemporal inventories of ice-marginal lakes are a critical first step in understanding the drivers of historic change, predicting future lake evolution, and assessing GLOF hazards. Here, we use Landsat-era satellite imagery and supervised classification to semi-automatically delineate lake outlines for four ~5 year time periods between 1984 and 2019 in Alaska and northwest Canada. Overall, ice-marginal lakes in the region have grown in total number (+176 lakes, 36 % increase) and area (+467 km 2 , 57 % increase) between the time periods of 1984–1988 and 2016–2019. However, changes in lake numbers and area were notably unsteady and nonuniform. We demonstrate that lake area changes are connected to dam type (moraine, bedrock, ice, or supraglacial) and topological position (proglacial, detached, unconnected, ice, or supraglacial), with important differences in lake behavior between the sub-groups. In strong contrast to all other dam types, ice-dammed lakes decreased in number (−9, 13 % decrease) and area (−56 km 2 , 43 % decrease), while moraine-dammed lakes increased (+59, 28 % and +468 km 2 , 85 % for number and area, respectively), a faster rate than the average when considering all dam types together. Proglacial lakes experienced the largest area changes and rate of change out of any topological position throughout the period of study. By tracking individual lakes through time and categorizing lakes by dam type, subregion, and topological position, we are able to parse trends that would otherwise be aliased if these characteristics were not considered. This work highlights the importance of such lake characterization when performing ice-marginal lake inventories, and provides insight into the physical processes driving recent ice-marginal lake evolution. Text glacier glacier* Alaska Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Canada Glacial Lake ENVELOPE(-129.463,-129.463,58.259,58.259) Marginal Lake ENVELOPE(163.500,163.500,-74.600,-74.600) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Ice-marginal lakes impact glacier mass balance, water resources, and ecosystem dynamics, and can produce catastrophic glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) via sudden drainage. Multitemporal inventories of ice-marginal lakes are a critical first step in understanding the drivers of historic change, predicting future lake evolution, and assessing GLOF hazards. Here, we use Landsat-era satellite imagery and supervised classification to semi-automatically delineate lake outlines for four ~5 year time periods between 1984 and 2019 in Alaska and northwest Canada. Overall, ice-marginal lakes in the region have grown in total number (+176 lakes, 36 % increase) and area (+467 km 2 , 57 % increase) between the time periods of 1984–1988 and 2016–2019. However, changes in lake numbers and area were notably unsteady and nonuniform. We demonstrate that lake area changes are connected to dam type (moraine, bedrock, ice, or supraglacial) and topological position (proglacial, detached, unconnected, ice, or supraglacial), with important differences in lake behavior between the sub-groups. In strong contrast to all other dam types, ice-dammed lakes decreased in number (−9, 13 % decrease) and area (−56 km 2 , 43 % decrease), while moraine-dammed lakes increased (+59, 28 % and +468 km 2 , 85 % for number and area, respectively), a faster rate than the average when considering all dam types together. Proglacial lakes experienced the largest area changes and rate of change out of any topological position throughout the period of study. By tracking individual lakes through time and categorizing lakes by dam type, subregion, and topological position, we are able to parse trends that would otherwise be aliased if these characteristics were not considered. This work highlights the importance of such lake characterization when performing ice-marginal lake inventories, and provides insight into the physical processes driving recent ice-marginal lake evolution. |
format |
Text |
author |
Rick, Brianna McGrath, Daniel Armstrong, William McCoy, Scott W. |
spellingShingle |
Rick, Brianna McGrath, Daniel Armstrong, William McCoy, Scott W. Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019 |
author_facet |
Rick, Brianna McGrath, Daniel Armstrong, William McCoy, Scott W. |
author_sort |
Rick, Brianna |
title |
Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019 |
title_short |
Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019 |
title_full |
Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019 |
title_fullStr |
Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in Alaska and NW Canada between 1984 and 2019 |
title_sort |
dam type and topological position govern ice-marginal lake area change in alaska and nw canada between 1984 and 2019 |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-143 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-143/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-129.463,-129.463,58.259,58.259) ENVELOPE(163.500,163.500,-74.600,-74.600) |
geographic |
Canada Glacial Lake Marginal Lake |
geographic_facet |
Canada Glacial Lake Marginal Lake |
genre |
glacier glacier* Alaska |
genre_facet |
glacier glacier* Alaska |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-2021-143 https://tc.copernicus.org/preprints/tc-2021-143/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-143 |
_version_ |
1766008681385689088 |