Strong altitudinal control on the response of local glaciers to Holocene climate change in southwest Greenland

Larsen, Nicolaj K.; Strunk, Astrid; Levy, Laura B.; Olsen, Jesper; Bjørk, Anders A.; Lauridsen, Torben L.; Davidson, Thomas A.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2017.05.008

Cited by 45 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…We found no association between rate of volume loss and glacier elevation, which is contrary to the findings of Larsen et al (2017). We extracted centroid locations for each glacier and statistically evaluated that there was no east-west trend and no north-south trend.…”

Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…Longer-term spatiotemporal patterns of the GrIS have been evaluated since the last interglacial 130,000 years ago by Vasskog et al (2015) and since 1900 by Kjeldsen et al (2015), respectively. However, studies on Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluctuations of Greenland's GICs have been spatially isolated (e.g., Kelly et al, 2008;Larsen et al, 2017;Möller et al, 2010), often focusing on large marine-terminating or tidewater margins. Consequently, research on mass changes in Greenland GICs (e.g., Bjørk et al, 2012;Larsen et al, 2017;Marcer et al, 2017;Rinne et al, 2011;von Albedyll et al, 2018;Weidick, 1968;Yde et al, 2014;Yde & Knudsen, 2007) has been spatially disparate and temporally fragmented.…”

Section: 1029/2018gl081383mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, studies on Late Pleistocene and Holocene fluctuations of Greenland's GICs have been spatially isolated (e.g., Kelly et al, 2008;Larsen et al, 2017;Möller et al, 2010), often focusing on large marine-terminating or tidewater margins. Consequently, research on mass changes in Greenland GICs (e.g., Bjørk et al, 2012;Larsen et al, 2017;Marcer et al, 2017;Rinne et al, 2011;von Albedyll et al, 2018;Weidick, 1968;Yde et al, 2014;Yde & Knudsen, 2007) has been spatially disparate and temporally fragmented. The most spatially extensive work is by Bjørk et al (2018) who provided a regional comparison of 334 GIC length changes in east and west Greenland and who showed pervasive glacier length reductions.…”

Section: 1029/2018gl081383mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Accelerated Volume Loss in Glacier Ablation Zones of NE Greenland, Little Ice Age to Present

Carrivick

Boston

King

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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Mountain glaciers at the periphery of the Greenland ice sheet are a crucial freshwater and sediment source to the North Atlantic and strongly impact Arctic terrestrial, fjord, and coastal biogeochemical cycles. In this study we mapped the extent of 1,848 mountain glaciers in NE Greenland at the Little Ice Age. We determined area and volume changes for the time periods Little Ice Age to 1980s and 1980s to 2014 and equilibrium line altitudes. There was at least 172.76 ± 34.55‐km3 volume lost between 1910 and 1980s, that is, a rate of 2.61 ± 0.52 km3/year. Between 1980s and 2014 the volume lost was 90.55 ± 18.11 km3, that is, a rate of 3.22 ± 0.64 km3/year, implying an increase of ~23% in the rate of ice volume loss. Overall, at least ~7% of mass loss from Greenland mountain glaciers and ice caps has come from the NE sector.

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Section: Resultscontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: 1029/2018gl081383mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: 1029/2018gl081383mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Accelerated Volume Loss in Glacier Ablation Zones of NE Greenland, Little Ice Age to Present

Carrivick

Boston

King

et al. 2019

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…2). The transitions from marine to lacustrine sediment were identified using a multiproxy approach including elemental XRF data (Ca/Fe, Ti/ (inc+coh)), MS, and LOI content (Sparrenbom et al 2013;Larsen et al 2017) as well as foraminiferal analysis ). Meltwater-dominated sediments consist of laminated silty clay with relatively high MS, and low LOI (Kaplan et al 2002;Briner et al 2010;Larsen et al 2011Larsen et al , 2015Larsen et al , 2016aLarsen et al , 2017Young & Briner 2015;van der Bilt et al 2018;Bjørk et al 2018).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…ka BP, respectively (Balascio et al 2015;van der Bilt et al 2018). In southwest Greenland, proglacial lake records also demonstrate that three local ice caps completely melted away during the HTM and that their formation during the Neoglacial was controlled by their respective altitudes (Larsen et al 2017). Lake records from two other studies from Sukkertoppen Iskappe in southwest Greenland and a local ice cap at Nuussuaq in west Greenland were less conclusive (Schweinsberg et al 2017(Schweinsberg et al , 2018.…”

Section: Summary Of Gic Records In Finderup Landmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local ice caps in Finderup Land, North Greenland, survived the Holocene Thermal Maximum

Larsen

Levy

Strunk

et al. 2019

Boreas

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Local glaciers and ice caps (GICs) comprise only ~5.4% of the total ice volume, but account for ~14–20% of the current ice loss in Greenland. The glacial history of GICs is not well constrained, however, and little is known about how they reacted to Holocene climate changes. Specifically, in North Greenland, there is limited knowledge about past GIC fluctuations and whether they survived the Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM, ~8 to 5 ka). In this study, we use proglacial lake records to constrain the ice‐marginal fluctuations of three local ice caps in North Greenland including Flade Isblink, the largest ice cap in Greenland. Additionally, we have radiocarbon dated reworked marine molluscs in Little Ice Age (LIA) moraines adjacent to the Flade Isblink, which reveal when the ice cap was smaller than present. We found that outlet glaciers from Flade Isblink retreated inland of their present extent from ~9.4 to 0.2 cal. ka BP. The proglacial lake records, however, demonstrate that the lakes continued to receive glacial meltwater throughout the entire Holocene. This implies that GICs in Finderup Land survived the HTM. Our results are consistent with other observations from North Greenland but differ from locations in southern Greenland where all records show that the local ice caps at low and intermediate elevations disappeared completely during the HTM. We explain the north–south gradient in glacier response as a result of sensitivity to increased temperature and precipitation. While the increased temperatures during the HTM led to a complete melting of GICs in southern Greenland, GICs remained in North Greenland probably because the melting was counterbalanced by increased precipitation due to a reduction in Arctic sea‐ice extent and/or increased poleward moisture transport.

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The imprint of catchment processes on Greenlandic ice cap proglacial lake records: analytical approaches and palaeoenvironmental significance

Adamson

Lane

Carney

et al. 2022

J Quaternary Science

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Lakes fed by Greenlandic mountain glaciers and ice caps (GICs) contain important archives of Arctic palaeoenvironmental change. GIC proglacial lake records have been increasingly used to reconstruct Holocene glacier behaviour, largely focusing on macrostratigraphy. However, despite the wide range of topographic settings and catchment characteristics, there has been little systematic analysis of the ways that catchment conditions are registered in the clastic sediments of GIC lakes. Such signals provide valuable insights into landscape processes and palaeoenvironmental conditions that are not routinely captured in other Quaternary glacial morphosedimentary archives. This review synthesises sedimentological and geochemical evidence from existing Holocene GIC proglacial lake records to establish: how catchment-wide conditions have been recorded in the lacustrine sequences; and our ability to isolate these signals to enhance palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. Our review shows that with careful sedimentological and targeted (bio)geochemical analyses coupled with a clear process-based understanding, catchment and in-lake signals can be effectively identified in the microstratigraphic and mineral grain record. Such signals include wind patterns, mass wasting, precipitation events and seasonal lake ice cover, that can complement broader palaeoclimatic proxy evidence. The approaches collated here, if more widely applied, could considerably enhance environmental reconstructions not only in Greenland, but in glaciated catchments elsewhere.

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Strong altitudinal control on the response of local glaciers to Holocene climate change in southwest Greenland

Cited by 45 publications

References 64 publications

Accelerated Volume Loss in Glacier Ablation Zones of NE Greenland, Little Ice Age to Present

Accelerated Volume Loss in Glacier Ablation Zones of NE Greenland, Little Ice Age to Present

Local ice caps in Finderup Land, North Greenland, survived the Holocene Thermal Maximum

The imprint of catchment processes on Greenlandic ice cap proglacial lake records: analytical approaches and palaeoenvironmental significance

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