ALBERT

Description: The South Shetland Islands are located at the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). This region was subject to extreme warming trends in the atmospheric surface layer. Surface air temperature increased about 3K in 50 years, concurrent with retreating glacier fronts, an increase in melt areas, ice surface lowering and rapid break-up and disintegration of ice shelves. The positive trend in surface air temperature has currently come to a halt. Observed surface air temperature lapse rates show a high variability during 5 winter months (standard deviations up to 1:0K=100m), and a distinct spatial heterogeneity reflecting the impact of synoptic weather patterns. The increased mesocyclonic activity during the winter time over the past decades in the study area results in intensified advection of warm, moist air with high temperatures and rain, and leads to melt conditions on the ice cap, fixating surface air temperatures to the melting point. Its impact on winter accumulation results in the observed negative mass balance estimates. Six years of continuous glaciological measurements on mass balance stake 10 transects as well as five years of climatological data time series are presented and a spatially distributed glacier energy balance melt model adapted and run based on these multi-year data sets. The glaciological model is generally in good agreement, except for climatic conditions promoting snow drift by high wind speeds, turbulence-driven snow deposition and snow layer erosion by rain. No drift can be seen over the course of the 5-year model run period. The winter accumulation does not suffice to compensate for the high variability in summer ablation. The results are analyzed to assess changes in melt water input to 15 the coastal waters, specific glacier mass balance and the equilibrium line altitude. The Fourcade Glacier catchment drains into Potter cove, has an area of 23.6 km2 and is to 93.8% glacierized. Annual discharge from Fourcade Glacier into Potter Cove is estimated to q = (25 pm 6) hm3/yr with the standard deviation of 8% annotating the high interannual variability. Published studies suggest rather stable conditions of slightly negative glacier mass balance until the mid 80's with an ELA of approx. 150 m. The average equilibrium line altitude (ELA) calculated from own glaciological observations on Fourcade Glacier over the time period 2010 to 2015 amounts to ELA = (260 pm 20) m. The calculated accumulation area ratio suggests dramatic changes in the future extension of the inland ice cap for the South Shetland Islands.

Description: Although the relationship between surface air temperature and glacial discharge has been studied in the northern hemisphere for at least a century, similar studies for Antarctica remain scarce and only for the past decades. This data scarcity is due to the extreme meteorological conditions and terrain inaccessibility. As a result, the contribution of glacial discharge in Antarctica to global sea level rise is still attached with great uncertainties, in especially from partly glaciated hydrological basins as can be found in the Antarctic Peninsula. In this paper, we propose a simplified model based on the Monte Carlo method and Fourier analysis for estimating discharge in partly glaciated and periglacial hydrological catchments with a summer melt period. Our model offers the advantage of scarce data requirements and quick recognition of periglacial environments. Discharge was found to be highly correlated with surface air temperature for the partially glaciated hydrological catchments on Potter Peninsula, King George Island (Isla 25 Mayo). The model is simple to implement and requires few variables to make most versatile simulations. We have obtained simulated maximum flow estimates between 1.92 - 2.77 hm3/month for two creeks (South and North Potter) with a very good fit to field observations. The glacial mean discharge during summer months was estimated to 1.13 -1.43 hm3/month for each creek, respectively.

Description: Recent rapid retreat of glacial front lines and the loss of land ice along the Antarctic margins may play an important role in exporting suspended particulate matter (SPM) potentially rich in bioavailable (defined as ascorbate leachable) iron (FeA) to coastal areas of the Southern Ocean. Sediment ablation is an additional source of iron for this high-nutrient low-chlorophyll region. In Potter Cove, King George Island, meltwater streams discharge up to 18 000 mg/l (average 283 mg/l) of slightly weathered, finely ground bedrock particles into coastal waters during the summer. Approximately 15% of this SPM is exported within a low-salinity surface plume into Bransfield Strait. Based on our data, an estimated 12 mg/m**2/yr of FeA is exported from the South Shetland Island land surface (ice-free and subglacial areas) to the surrounding coastal waters. Extrapolated to an area of 2.5x104 km**2, this FeA input is comparable to the contribution from icebergs and c. 240-fold higher than aeolian input via dust. An observed rise in local sediment accumulation rates suggests that glacial erosion has been increasing over recent decades and that (sub-)glacially derived SPM is becoming more important as a source of iron to the Southern Ocean.