Controls of sediment-bound and dissolved nutrient transport from a glaciated metasedimentary catchment in the high Arctic ...

• Main Authors: Stachnik, Lukasz, Hawkings, Jon, Spolaor, Andrea, Stachniak, Katarzyna, Ignatiuk, Dariusz, Sitek, Sławomir, Janik, Krzysztof, Łepkowska, Elżbieta, Burgay, Francois, Syczewski, Marcin Daniel, Segato, Delia
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2024
• Subjects: meltwater; silica; iron; phosphorous; Arctic; glacier; suspended sediments; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10650475; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.10650475

Abstract Rapid warming in polar and alpine areas is causing significant glacier mass loss and resulting in increasingly large quantities of freshwater delivery to the oceans. Recent research indicates that higher meltwater water runoff is likely to increase transport of solute and sediments, which will include nutrients, to downstream environments. This enhanced delivery may drive a negative feedback effect on atmospheric CO2 concentrations by fuelling primary production in fjords and near-coastal regions. Labile sediment-bound fractions constitute a high proportion of the total nutrient yield from a glacierised basin but data is sparse and the impact of these particulate nutrients is debated. Here we determine sediment-bound and dissolved nutrient (Si, Fe, P) delivery from a polythermal glacier in SW Spitsbergen. Suspended sediment and dissolved samples were collected from subglacial outflows, and a downstream site. Our results show high spatial variability of chemical weathering processes resulting in ...