Acceleration in thinning rate on western Svalbard glaciers

Kohler, Jack; James, T. D.; Murray, Tavi; Nuth, C.; Brandt, O.; Barrand, Nicholas E.; F., H.; Luckman, Adrian

doi:10.1029/2007gl030681

Cited by 189 publications

(226 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Recently, Lydersen et al (2014) regarded glacier rivers discharge responsible for formation of these foraging hot spots. Whatever physical features creating these specific foraging sites, climate warming and proceeding glacial melting is thought to reduce these important foraging areas (Kohler et al 2007). As a consequence this may cause a significant decrease in numbers of pagophilic species (Gilchrist and Mallory 2005;Moore and Huntington 2008;Cottier et al 2010;Lydersen et al 2014;Descamps et al 2016).…”

Section: Consequences Of Glacier Retreat For Seabirds and Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine birds and mammals foraging in the rapidly deglaciating Arctic fjord - numbers, distribution and habitat preferences

et al. 2016

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Climate-induced glacier retreat is considered in the context of its reducing the seaice contact zone used by marine birds and mammals as important foraging grounds and may cause declines in their numbers. To test this hypothesis, a survey was conducted in diversified habitats of a rapidly deglaciating Arctic fjord in Svalbard. Of the fifteen seabird and four mammal species found, coastal surface-feeders prevailed over benthic-feeders and pelagic pursuit-divers. Deep tidewater glacier bays were used by the most numerous but least heterogeneous foraging community, in contrast to the shallow lagoons of coastlineterminating glaciers and deglaciated shorelines. After the 15 years of glaciers retreat documented in Hornsund, the sea-ice contact zone used by birds and mammals has not declined. On the contrary, the increasing freshwater supply from underwater glacial rivers raising zooplankton up to the surface, thus making it available to seabirds, enhances the attractiveness of tidewater glacier bays. Along with the stage of retreat, the importance of glacier bays as feeding grounds changes. Foraging conditions deteriorate when the glacier terminus reaches the coastline and the glacier bay becomes shallower. However, glacier retreat enlarges the area of littoral habitats accessible to benthophages. Glacier-related habitats situated close to colony are used as alternative/emergency feeding grounds by seabirds that normally forage outside the fjord. This is especially important during the chick-rearing period and also during bad weather conditions in the open sea. Our study demonstrates that, so far, the abundance and species diversity of seabirds foraging in the rapidly deglaciating Hornsund are both high, suggesting that they benefit from the current intensive glacier melt. However, with further climate change an apparent biodiversity paradox may occur. Here, overall biodiversity will increase but local diversity of pagophilic species will decline. Such nonlinear responses complicate the prediction of future polar ecosystem dynamics.

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Section: Consequences Of Glacier Retreat For Seabirds and Mammalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marine birds and mammals foraging in the rapidly deglaciating Arctic fjord - numbers, distribution and habitat preferences

et al. 2016

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“…Ziaja and Ostafin 2007;Ziaja et al 2016a) indicate the intensification of the recession process from the 1980s onwards. Glacier volume has decreased, especially on western Svalbard (Kohler et al 2007;James et al 2012;Nuth et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation diversity and selected abiotic factors influencing the primary succession process on the foreland of Gåsbreen, Svalbard

Wietrzyk¹,

Węgrzyn²,

Lisowska³

2016

Polish Polar Research

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Abstract:The rapidly changing Arctic provides excellent opportunities for investigating primary succession on freshly deglaciated areas. Research on the Gåsbreen foreland (S Spitsbergen) traced the succession of particular groups of organisms and species, particularly lichens and bryophytes, and determined the effect of selected abiotic factors on this succession. Fieldwork in 2008, employed a continuous linear transect of phytosociological relevés (1 m 2 ) along the foreland. Data analysis allowed to distinguish five different succession stages and three types of colonisers. Canonical correspondence analysis and a permutation test showed that distance from the front of the glacier and fine grain material in the substrate mostly influenced the distribution and abundance of vegetation, and the steepness of the moraine hills affected the colonisation process, mainly in the older part of the marginal zone.

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“…Besides this glacial isostatic adjustment, the present-day ice melting can be observed (Kohler et al 2007). Both effects induce deformation of the Earth.…”

Section: Stochastic Partmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the noise characteristics of time series recorded with nearby located GPS receivers and superconducting gravity meters

et al. 2018

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The inter-comparison of ground gravity measurements and vertical surface displacements enables to better understand the structure, dynamics and evolution of the Earth's system. Within this research we analyzed the Global Positioning System vertical position time series acquired in the vicinity of the superconducting gravimeters. We estimated of noise character of GPS and SG by comparison of the satellite and terrestrial measurements collected at 18 globally distributed neighboring sites. The comparable results were provided by applying the appropriate and corresponding models of geophysical phenomena to obtain residual time series, and by unifying the sampling rate since the noise characteristics may depend on it. The deterministic part of the series was assumed to follow the Polynomial Trend Model and was subtracted prior to noise analysis. Then, a combination of power-law and white noise was presumed and the Maximum Likelihood Estimation implemented in the Hector software to investigate the stochastic part was applied. Within the paper, we show that the spectral indices for all SG time series fall in the area of fractional Brownian motion (-2 \ j \ -1), while GPS data are best characterized by fractional Gaussian noises (-1 \ j \ 0). The estimated ratio between spectral indices of GPS and SG is stable worldwide with a global median value of about 0.5. Concerning the power-law amplitudes, these are very consistent worldwide for the GPS position time series and fluctuate around 15 mm/year -j/4 , while in the case of SG records they spread between 60 and 300 nm/ s 2 /year -j/4 . The fraction of power-law noise employed in the assumed combination is equal to 100% for almost all SG stations, while in case of GPS it varies between 26.1 and 99.9%. The main finding of this research is that the assumption of power-law noise is much more preferred for SG data than the assumption of a pure white noise being used until now.

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Acceleration in thinning rate on western Svalbard glaciers

Cited by 189 publications

References 29 publications

Marine birds and mammals foraging in the rapidly deglaciating Arctic fjord - numbers, distribution and habitat preferences

Marine birds and mammals foraging in the rapidly deglaciating Arctic fjord - numbers, distribution and habitat preferences

Vegetation diversity and selected abiotic factors influencing the primary succession process on the foreland of Gåsbreen, Svalbard

On the noise characteristics of time series recorded with nearby located GPS receivers and superconducting gravity meters

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