Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes
The ongoing warming of cold regions is affecting hydrological processes, causing deep changes, such as a ubiquitous increase in river winter discharges. The drivers of this increase are not yet fully identified mainly due to the lack of observations and field measurements in cold and remote environm...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:ed801b4256814730bed6094abe46538e 2023-05-15T18:28:36+02:00 Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes A. Chesnokova M. Baraër É. Bouchard 2020-11-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4145-2020 https://doaj.org/article/ed801b4256814730bed6094abe46538e EN eng Copernicus Publications https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/4145/2020/tc-14-4145-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-14-4145-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/ed801b4256814730bed6094abe46538e The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 4145-4164 (2020) Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4145-2020 2022-12-31T05:13:20Z The ongoing warming of cold regions is affecting hydrological processes, causing deep changes, such as a ubiquitous increase in river winter discharges. The drivers of this increase are not yet fully identified mainly due to the lack of observations and field measurements in cold and remote environments. In order to provide new insights into the sources generating winter runoff, the present study explores the possibility of extracting information from icings that form over the winter and are often still present early in the summer. Primary sources detection was performed using time-lapse camera images of icings found in both proglacial fields and upper alpine meadows in June 2016 in two subarctic glacierized catchments in the upper part of the Duke watershed in the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon. As images alone are not sufficient to entirely cover a large and hydrologically complex area, we explore the possibility of compensating for that limit by using four supplementary methods based on natural tracers: (a) stable water isotopes, (b) water ionic content, (c) dissolved organic carbon, and (d) cryogenic precipitates. The interpretation of the combined results shows a complex hydrological system where multiple sources contribute to icing growth over the studied winter. Glaciers of all sizes, directly or through the aquifer, represent the major parent water source for icing formation in the studied proglacial areas. Groundwater-fed hillslope tributaries, possibly connected to suprapermafrost layers, make up the other detectable sources in icing remnants. If similar results are confirmed in other cold regions, they would together support a multi-causal hypothesis for a general increase in winter discharge in glacierized catchments. More generally, this study shows the potential of using icing formations as a new, barely explored source of information on cold region winter hydrological processes that can contribute to overcoming the paucity of observations in these regions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Subarctic The Cryosphere Yukon Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Yukon The Cryosphere 14 11 4145 4164 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
spellingShingle |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 A. Chesnokova M. Baraër É. Bouchard Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes |
topic_facet |
Environmental sciences GE1-350 Geology QE1-996.5 |
description |
The ongoing warming of cold regions is affecting hydrological processes, causing deep changes, such as a ubiquitous increase in river winter discharges. The drivers of this increase are not yet fully identified mainly due to the lack of observations and field measurements in cold and remote environments. In order to provide new insights into the sources generating winter runoff, the present study explores the possibility of extracting information from icings that form over the winter and are often still present early in the summer. Primary sources detection was performed using time-lapse camera images of icings found in both proglacial fields and upper alpine meadows in June 2016 in two subarctic glacierized catchments in the upper part of the Duke watershed in the St. Elias Mountains, Yukon. As images alone are not sufficient to entirely cover a large and hydrologically complex area, we explore the possibility of compensating for that limit by using four supplementary methods based on natural tracers: (a) stable water isotopes, (b) water ionic content, (c) dissolved organic carbon, and (d) cryogenic precipitates. The interpretation of the combined results shows a complex hydrological system where multiple sources contribute to icing growth over the studied winter. Glaciers of all sizes, directly or through the aquifer, represent the major parent water source for icing formation in the studied proglacial areas. Groundwater-fed hillslope tributaries, possibly connected to suprapermafrost layers, make up the other detectable sources in icing remnants. If similar results are confirmed in other cold regions, they would together support a multi-causal hypothesis for a general increase in winter discharge in glacierized catchments. More generally, this study shows the potential of using icing formations as a new, barely explored source of information on cold region winter hydrological processes that can contribute to overcoming the paucity of observations in these regions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
A. Chesnokova M. Baraër É. Bouchard |
author_facet |
A. Chesnokova M. Baraër É. Bouchard |
author_sort |
A. Chesnokova |
title |
Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes |
title_short |
Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes |
title_full |
Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes |
title_fullStr |
Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes |
title_sort |
proglacial icings as records of winter hydrological processes |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4145-2020 https://doaj.org/article/ed801b4256814730bed6094abe46538e |
geographic |
Yukon |
geographic_facet |
Yukon |
genre |
Subarctic The Cryosphere Yukon |
genre_facet |
Subarctic The Cryosphere Yukon |
op_source |
The Cryosphere, Vol 14, Pp 4145-4164 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/14/4145/2020/tc-14-4145-2020.pdf https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0416 https://doaj.org/toc/1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-14-4145-2020 1994-0416 1994-0424 https://doaj.org/article/ed801b4256814730bed6094abe46538e |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4145-2020 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
14 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
4145 |
op_container_end_page |
4164 |
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1766211132854370304 |