Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system
Nienow, Sole and Cowton’s Greenland research has been supported by a number of UK NERC research grants (NER/O/S/2003/00620; NE/F021399/1; NE/H024964/1; NE/K015249/1; NE/K014609/1) and Slater has been supported by a NERC PhD studentship Purpose of the review: This review discusses the role that meltw...
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ftstandrewserep:oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/12102 2023-07-02T03:32:24+02:00 Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system Nienow, P. W. Sole, A. J. Slater, Donald Alexander Cowton, T. R. University of St Andrews. School of Geography & Sustainable Development University of St Andrews. Bell-Edwards Geographic Data Institute 2017-11-15T16:30:17Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12102 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 eng eng Current Climate Change Reports Nienow , P W , Sole , A J , Slater , D A & Cowton , T R 2017 , ' Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system ' , Current Climate Change Reports , vol. 3 , no. 4 , pp. 330-344 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 2198-6061 PURE: 251446816 PURE UUID: bd3d0fd9-55d3-4ee1-a499-487bd6e78820 Scopus: 85044309416 WOS: 000461109800014 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12102 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 © The Author(s) 2017. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Greenland ice sheet Ice sheet hydrology Ice dynamics Tidewater glaciers Sediment and solute fluxes Ice sheet erosion GE Environmental Sciences QE Geology SDG 13 - Climate Action SDG 15 - Life on Land GE QE Journal item 2017 ftstandrewserep https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 2023-06-13T18:28:24Z Nienow, Sole and Cowton’s Greenland research has been supported by a number of UK NERC research grants (NER/O/S/2003/00620; NE/F021399/1; NE/H024964/1; NE/K015249/1; NE/K014609/1) and Slater has been supported by a NERC PhD studentship Purpose of the review: This review discusses the role that meltwater plays within the Greenland ice sheet system. The ice sheet’s hydrology is important because it affects mass balance through its impact on meltwater runoff processes and ice dynamics. The review considers recent advances in our understanding of the storage and routing of water through the supraglacial, englacial, and subglacial components of the system and their implications for the ice sheet Recent findings: There have been dramatic increases in surface meltwater generation and runoff since the early 1990s, both due to increased air temperatures and decreasing surface albedo. Processes in the subglacial drainage system have similarities to valley glaciers and in a warming climate, the efficiency of meltwater routing to the ice sheet margin is likely to increase. The behaviour of the subglacial drainage system appears to limit the impact of increased surface melt on annual rates of ice motion, in sections of the ice sheet that terminate on land, while the large volumes of meltwater routed subglacially deliver significant volumes of sediment and nutrients to downstream ecosystems. Summary: Considerable advances have been made recently in our understanding of Greenland ice sheet hydrology and its wider influences. Nevertheless, critical gaps persist both in our understanding of hydrology-dynamics coupling, notably at tidewater glaciers, and in runoff processes which ensure that projecting Greenland’s future mass balance remains challenging. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Ice Sheet University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository Greenland Ner ENVELOPE(6.622,6.622,62.612,62.612) Current Climate Change Reports 3 4 330 344 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftstandrewserep |
language |
English |
topic |
Greenland ice sheet Ice sheet hydrology Ice dynamics Tidewater glaciers Sediment and solute fluxes Ice sheet erosion GE Environmental Sciences QE Geology SDG 13 - Climate Action SDG 15 - Life on Land GE QE |
spellingShingle |
Greenland ice sheet Ice sheet hydrology Ice dynamics Tidewater glaciers Sediment and solute fluxes Ice sheet erosion GE Environmental Sciences QE Geology SDG 13 - Climate Action SDG 15 - Life on Land GE QE Nienow, P. W. Sole, A. J. Slater, Donald Alexander Cowton, T. R. Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system |
topic_facet |
Greenland ice sheet Ice sheet hydrology Ice dynamics Tidewater glaciers Sediment and solute fluxes Ice sheet erosion GE Environmental Sciences QE Geology SDG 13 - Climate Action SDG 15 - Life on Land GE QE |
description |
Nienow, Sole and Cowton’s Greenland research has been supported by a number of UK NERC research grants (NER/O/S/2003/00620; NE/F021399/1; NE/H024964/1; NE/K015249/1; NE/K014609/1) and Slater has been supported by a NERC PhD studentship Purpose of the review: This review discusses the role that meltwater plays within the Greenland ice sheet system. The ice sheet’s hydrology is important because it affects mass balance through its impact on meltwater runoff processes and ice dynamics. The review considers recent advances in our understanding of the storage and routing of water through the supraglacial, englacial, and subglacial components of the system and their implications for the ice sheet Recent findings: There have been dramatic increases in surface meltwater generation and runoff since the early 1990s, both due to increased air temperatures and decreasing surface albedo. Processes in the subglacial drainage system have similarities to valley glaciers and in a warming climate, the efficiency of meltwater routing to the ice sheet margin is likely to increase. The behaviour of the subglacial drainage system appears to limit the impact of increased surface melt on annual rates of ice motion, in sections of the ice sheet that terminate on land, while the large volumes of meltwater routed subglacially deliver significant volumes of sediment and nutrients to downstream ecosystems. Summary: Considerable advances have been made recently in our understanding of Greenland ice sheet hydrology and its wider influences. Nevertheless, critical gaps persist both in our understanding of hydrology-dynamics coupling, notably at tidewater glaciers, and in runoff processes which ensure that projecting Greenland’s future mass balance remains challenging. Publisher PDF Peer reviewed |
author2 |
University of St Andrews. School of Geography & Sustainable Development University of St Andrews. Bell-Edwards Geographic Data Institute |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Nienow, P. W. Sole, A. J. Slater, Donald Alexander Cowton, T. R. |
author_facet |
Nienow, P. W. Sole, A. J. Slater, Donald Alexander Cowton, T. R. |
author_sort |
Nienow, P. W. |
title |
Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system |
title_short |
Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system |
title_full |
Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system |
title_fullStr |
Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system |
title_full_unstemmed |
Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system |
title_sort |
recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the greenland ice sheet system |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12102 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(6.622,6.622,62.612,62.612) |
geographic |
Greenland Ner |
geographic_facet |
Greenland Ner |
genre |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Greenland Ice Sheet |
op_relation |
Current Climate Change Reports Nienow , P W , Sole , A J , Slater , D A & Cowton , T R 2017 , ' Recent advances in our understanding of the role of meltwater in the Greenland ice sheet system ' , Current Climate Change Reports , vol. 3 , no. 4 , pp. 330-344 . https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 2198-6061 PURE: 251446816 PURE UUID: bd3d0fd9-55d3-4ee1-a499-487bd6e78820 Scopus: 85044309416 WOS: 000461109800014 http://hdl.handle.net/10023/12102 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 |
op_rights |
© The Author(s) 2017. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-017-0083-9 |
container_title |
Current Climate Change Reports |
container_volume |
3 |
container_issue |
4 |
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330 |
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344 |
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1770271960508399616 |