Biogeochemical investigations of methane-rich groundwaters in high Arctic glacial catchments ...

• Main Author: Kleber, Gabrielle
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; biogeochemistry; glacier; methane; Svalbard; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.100060; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/354051

Permafrost and glaciers in the high Arctic form a near-impermeable ‘cryospheric cap’ that traps a potentially large reservoir of sub-surface methane and prevents it from reaching the atmosphere. The vulnerability of the cryosphere to climate warming is making releases of this methane possible, but uncertainty in the magnitude and timing of such releases makes predictions of Arctic greenhouse gas emissions difficult. In Svalbard, where air temperatures are rising more than twice as fast as the average for the Arctic, glaciers are retreating and leaving behind exposed forefields that enable rapid methane escape. Through an extensive spatial study of proglacial groundwater springs on Svalbard, groundwater systems within glaciated catchments are found to be bringing to the surface deep-seated methane gas that was previously trapped beneath glaciers and permafrost in the Arctic. In this thesis, I estimate the amount of methane being released by such springs and discuss its origin. Through a temporal study ...