Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica
Antarctic supraglacial lakes (SGLs) have been linked to ice shelf collapse and the subsequent acceleration of inland ice flow, but observations of SGLs remain relatively scarce and their interannual variability is largely unknown. This makes it difficult to assess whether some ice shelves are close...
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ftulancaster:oai:eprints.lancs.ac.uk:168309 2023-08-27T04:06:04+02:00 Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica Arthur, Jennifer F. Stokes, Chris R. Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Carr, J. Rachel Leeson, Amber Verjans, Vincent 2022-03-31 https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/168309/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29385-3 unknown Arthur, Jennifer F. and Stokes, Chris R. and Jamieson, Stewart S. R. and Carr, J. Rachel and Leeson, Amber and Verjans, Vincent (2022) Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica. Nature Communications, 13 (1). ISSN 2041-1723 Journal Article PeerReviewed 2022 ftulancaster https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29385-3 2023-08-03T22:41:15Z Antarctic supraglacial lakes (SGLs) have been linked to ice shelf collapse and the subsequent acceleration of inland ice flow, but observations of SGLs remain relatively scarce and their interannual variability is largely unknown. This makes it difficult to assess whether some ice shelves are close to thresholds of stability under climate warming. Here, we present the first observations of SGLs across the entire East Antarctic Ice Sheet over multiple melt seasons (2014–2020). Interannual variability in SGL volume is >200% on some ice shelves, but patterns are highly asynchronous. More extensive, deeper SGLs correlate with higher summer (December-January-February) air temperatures, but comparisons with modelled melt and runoff are complex. However, we find that modelled January melt and the ratio of November firn air content to summer melt are important predictors of SGL volume on some potentially vulnerable ice shelves, suggesting large increases in SGLs should be expected under future atmospheric warming. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves Lancaster University: Lancaster Eprints Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctica Nature Communications 13 1 |
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Lancaster University: Lancaster Eprints |
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Antarctic supraglacial lakes (SGLs) have been linked to ice shelf collapse and the subsequent acceleration of inland ice flow, but observations of SGLs remain relatively scarce and their interannual variability is largely unknown. This makes it difficult to assess whether some ice shelves are close to thresholds of stability under climate warming. Here, we present the first observations of SGLs across the entire East Antarctic Ice Sheet over multiple melt seasons (2014–2020). Interannual variability in SGL volume is >200% on some ice shelves, but patterns are highly asynchronous. More extensive, deeper SGLs correlate with higher summer (December-January-February) air temperatures, but comparisons with modelled melt and runoff are complex. However, we find that modelled January melt and the ratio of November firn air content to summer melt are important predictors of SGL volume on some potentially vulnerable ice shelves, suggesting large increases in SGLs should be expected under future atmospheric warming. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Arthur, Jennifer F. Stokes, Chris R. Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Carr, J. Rachel Leeson, Amber Verjans, Vincent |
spellingShingle |
Arthur, Jennifer F. Stokes, Chris R. Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Carr, J. Rachel Leeson, Amber Verjans, Vincent Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica |
author_facet |
Arthur, Jennifer F. Stokes, Chris R. Jamieson, Stewart S. R. Carr, J. Rachel Leeson, Amber Verjans, Vincent |
author_sort |
Arthur, Jennifer F. |
title |
Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica |
title_short |
Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica |
title_full |
Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica |
title_fullStr |
Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica |
title_full_unstemmed |
Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica |
title_sort |
large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around east antarctica |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/168309/ https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29385-3 |
geographic |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic East Antarctic Ice Sheet East Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic Antarctica East Antarctica Ice Sheet Ice Shelf Ice Shelves |
op_relation |
Arthur, Jennifer F. and Stokes, Chris R. and Jamieson, Stewart S. R. and Carr, J. Rachel and Leeson, Amber and Verjans, Vincent (2022) Large interannual variability in supraglacial lakes around East Antarctica. Nature Communications, 13 (1). ISSN 2041-1723 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-29385-3 |
container_title |
Nature Communications |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
1 |
_version_ |
1775346805226078208 |