Modeling the Thickness of Perennial Ice Covers on Stratified Lakes of the Taylor Valley, Antarctica

• Main Authors: Obryk, Maciej K., Doran, Peter T., Hicks, Jared A., McKay, Christopher P., Priscu, John Charles
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: PDXScholar 2016
• Subjects: Glaciers > Ecological aspects; Glaciers > Antarctica > Taylor Valley; Atmospheric temperature; Geology; Geophysics and Seismology; Glaciology; Bonney; Fryxell; Lake Bonney; Lake Fryxell; Taylor Valley; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/geology_fac/103; https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1102&context=geology_fac

A 1-D ice cover model was developed to predict and constrain drivers of long-term ice thick-ness trends in chemically stratified lakes of Taylor Valley, Antarctica. The model is driven by surface ra-diative heat fluxes and heat fluxes from the underlying water column. The model successfully reproduced 16 a (between 1996 and 2012) of ice thickness changes for the west lobe of Lake Bonney (average ice thickness = 3.53 m) and Lake Fryxell (average ice thickness = 4.22 m). Long-term ice thick-ness trends require coupling with the thermal structure of the water column. The heat stored within the temperature maximum of lakes exceeding a liquid water column depth of 20 m can either impede or fa-cilitate ice thickness change depending on the predominant climatic trend (cooling or warming). As such, shallow (columns) perennially ice-covered lakes without deep temperature maxima are more sensitive indicators of climate change. The long-term ice thickness trends are a result of surface energy flux and heat flux from the deep temperature maximum in the water column, the latter of which results from absorbed solar radiation.