Rapid Wastage of Alaska Glaciers and Their Contribution to Rising Sea Level

Arendt, A. A.; Echelmeyer, Κ. A.; Harrison, W. D.; Lingle, Craig S.; Valentine, V.

doi:10.1126/science.1072497

Cited by 623 publications

(699 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The thinning at low altitude is confirmed for the southern group but a slightly reduced thinning is measured at the lowest elevations, below 4300 m. A similar feature has already been observed in other glacier regions (e.g. Arendt et al, 2002) and is due to the retreat of the glacier fronts which limits the thickness of ice available for melting. For the northern group, the glaciers seem to experience thickening or limited thinning below 4400 m. However, in this group, the glacier area below 4400 m is limited to 7 km 2 (out of 270 km 2 ) and is just accounted for by a few glacier tongues.…”

Section: Glacier Inventory Based On the Aster Imagesupporting

confidence: 59%

“…Hypothesis 1: Following "Sorge's Law" (Paterson, 1994, p14), most authors assume that the density profile remains unchanged in the accumulation zone and consider that only ice (density 900 kg/m 3 ) is lost or gained (e.g. Arendt et al, 2002). Hypothesis 2: Some studies consider instead that firn (density 600 kg/m3) is gained or lost in the accumulation area (e.g.…”

Section: Specific Mass Balancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Remote sensing estimates of glacier mass balances in the Himachal Pradesh (Western Himalaya, India)

Berthier¹,

Arnaud

Kumar

et al. 2007

Remote Sensing of Environment

500

350

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Although they correspond to an important fraction of the total area of mountain glaciers (33000 km 2 out of 546000 km 2 ), Himalayan glaciers and their mass balance are poorly sampled. For example, between 1977 and1999, the average area surveyed each year on the field was 6.8 km 2 only. No direct mass balance measurement is available after 1999. To contribute to fill this gap, we use remote sensing data to monitor glacier elevation changes and mass balances in the Spiti/Lahaul region (32.2°N, 77.6°E, Himachal Pradesh, Western Himalaya, India). The 2004 DEM is derived from two SPOT5 satellite optical images without any ground control points. This is achieved thanks to the good on-board geolocation of SPOT5 scenes and using SRTM elevations as a reference on the ice-free zones. Before comparison on glaciers, the two DEMs are analyzed on the stable areas surrounding the glaciers where no elevation change is expected. Two different biases are detected. A long wavelength bias affects the SPOT5 DEM and is correlated to an anomaly in the roll of the SPOT5 satellite. A bias is also observed as a function of altitude and is attributed to the SRTM dataset. Both biases are modeled and removed to permit unbiased comparison of the two DEM on the 915 km 2 ice-covered area digitized from an ASTER image.On most glaciers, a clear thinning is measured at low elevations, even on debris-covered tongues. Between 1999 and 2004, we obtain an overall specific mass balance of -0.7 to -0.85 m/a (water equivalent) depending on the density we use for the lost (or gained) material in the accumulation zone. This rate of ice loss is twice higher than the long-term (1977 to 1999) mass balance record for Himalaya indicating an increase in the pace of glacier wastage. To assess whether these ice losses are size-dependant, all glaciers were classified into three samples according to their areal extent. All three samples show ice loss, the loss being higher for glaciers larger than 30 km 2 . In the case of the benchmark Chhota Shigri glacier, a good agreement is found between our satellite observations and the mass balances measured on the field during hydrological years 2002-2003 and 2003-2004. Future studies using a similar methodology could determine whether similar ice losses have occurred in other parts of the Himalaya and may allow evaluation of the contribution of this mountain range to ongoing sea level rise.

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Section: Glacier Inventory Based On the Aster Imagesupporting

confidence: 59%

Section: Specific Mass Balancesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remote sensing estimates of glacier mass balances in the Himachal Pradesh (Western Himalaya, India)

Berthier¹,

Arnaud

Kumar

et al. 2007

Remote Sensing of Environment

500

350

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…The BGS is the largest surging glacier outside of the ice sheets (Molnia, 2008), covering 4373 km 2 and accounting for 4 % of the ice area in Alaska Berthier et al, 2010) and 6 % of the mass loss (Arendt et al, 2002). It extends from ∼ 100 m to 3000 m elevation with an equilibrium line at approximately 1000 m (Molnia, 2008).…”

Section: The Bering Glacier System (Bgs)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Surge dynamics on Bering Glacier, Alaska, in 2008–2011

et al. 2012

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Abstract.A surge cycle of the Bering Glacier system, Alaska, is examined using observations of surface velocity obtained using synthetic aperture radar (SAR) offset tracking, and elevation data obtained from the University of Alaska Fairbanks LiDAR altimetry program. After 13 yr of quiescence, the Bering Glacier system began to surge in The quiescent phase was characterized by small-scale acceleration events that increased driving stresses up to 70 %. When the surge initiated, synchronous acceleration occurred throughout much of the glacier length. Results suggest that downstream propagation of the surge is closely linked to the evolution of the driving stress during the surge, because driving stress appears to be tied to the amount of resistive stress provided by the bed. In contrast, upstream acceleration and upstream surge propagation is not dependent on driving stress evolution.

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“…In South America, the tropical Andes show that the glacier retreat, in terms of changes in surface area and length, over the last three decades is unprecedented since the maximum extension of the Little Ice Age (Rabatel et al., 2013). In North America, airborne laser altimetry has been used to estimate volume changes of 67 glaciers in Alaska from the mid‐1950s to the mid‐1990s and this evidenced that the average rate of thickness change was –0.52 m/year (Arendt, Echelmeyer, Harrison, Lingle, & Valentine, 2002). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The last 50 years of climate‐induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

Gatti

Dudko

Lim

et al. 2018

Ecology and Evolution

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In this article, we report and discuss the results obtained from a survey of plants, microorganisms (bacteria and fungi), and soil elements along a chronosequence in the first 600 m of the Maliy Aktru glacier's forefront (Altai Mountains, Russia). Many glaciers of the world show effects of climate change. Nonetheless, except for some local reports, the ecological effects of deglaciation have been poorly studied and have not been quantitatively assessed in the Altai Mountains. Here, we studied the ecological changes of plants, fungi, bacteria, and soil elements that take the form of a primary ecological succession and that took place over the deglaciated soil of the Maliy Aktru glacier during the last 50 year. According to our measurements, the glacier lost about 12 m per year during the last 50 years. Plant succession shows clear signs of changes along the incremental distance from the glacier forefront. The analysis of the plant α‐ and β‐diversity confirmed an expected increase of them with increasing distance from the glacier forefront. Moreover, the analysis of β‐diversity confirmed the hypothesis of the presence of three main stages of the plant succession: (a) initial (pioneer species) from 30 to 100 m; (b) intermediate (r‐selected species) from 110 to 120–150 m; and (c) final (K‐selected species) from 150 to 550. Our study also shows that saprotrophic communities of fungi are widely distributed in the glacier retreating area with higher relative abundances of saprotroph ascomycetes at early successional stages. The evolution of a primary succession is also evident for bacteria, soil elements, and CO 2 emission and respiration. The development of biological communities and the variation in geochemical parameters represent an irrefutable proof that climate change is altering soils that have been long covered by ice.

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Rapid Wastage of Alaska Glaciers and Their Contribution to Rising Sea Level

Cited by 623 publications

References 17 publications

Remote sensing estimates of glacier mass balances in the Himachal Pradesh (Western Himalaya, India)

Remote sensing estimates of glacier mass balances in the Himachal Pradesh (Western Himalaya, India)

Surge dynamics on Bering Glacier, Alaska, in 2008–2011

The last 50 years of climate‐induced melting of the Maliy Aktru glacier (Altai Mountains, Russia) revealed in a primary ecological succession

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