Dataset Information

Surface Pond Energy Absorption Across Four Himalayan Glaciers Accounts for 1/8 of Total Catchment Ice Loss.

ABSTRACT: Glaciers in High Mountain Asia, many of which exhibit surface debris, contain the largest volume of ice outside of the polar regions. Many contain supraglacial pond networks that enhance melt rates locally, but no large-scale assessment of their impact on melt rates exists. Here we use surface energy balance modeling forced using locally measured meteorological data and monthly satellite-derived pond distributions to estimate the total melt enhancement for the four main glaciers within the 400-km2 Langtang catchment, Nepal, for a 6-month period in 2014. Ponds account for 0.20 ± 0.03 m/year of surface melt, representing a local melt enhancement of a factor of 14 ± 3 compared with the debris-covered area, and equivalent to 12.5 ± 2.0% of total catchment ice loss. Given the prevalence of supraglacial ponds across the region, our results suggest that effective incorporation of melt enhancement by ponds is essential for accurate predictions of future mass balance change in the region.

SUBMITTER: Miles ES

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6473701 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Surface Pond Energy Absorption Across Four Himalayan Glaciers Accounts for 1/8 of Total Catchment Ice Loss.

Miles Evan S ES Willis Ian I Buri Pascal P Steiner Jakob F JF Arnold Neil S NS Pellicciotti Francesca F

Geophysical research letters 20181007 19

Glaciers in High Mountain Asia, many of which exhibit surface debris, contain the largest volume of ice outside of the polar regions. Many contain supraglacial pond networks that enhance melt rates locally, but no large-scale assessment of their impact on melt rates exists. Here we use surface energy balance modeling forced using locally measured meteorological data and monthly satellite-derived pond distributions to estimate the total melt enhancement for the four main glaciers within the 400-k ...[more]

PMID: 31031450

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Project description:Glacial meltwater drains into proglacial rivers where it interacts with the surrounding landscape, collecting microbial cells as it travels downstream. Characterizing the composition of the resulting microbial assemblages in transport can inform us about intra-annual changes in meltwater flowpaths beneath the glacier as well as hydrological connectivity with proglacial areas. Here, we investigated how the structure of suspended microbial assemblages evolves over the course of a melt season for three proglacial catchments of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS), reasoning that differences in glacier size and the proportion of glacierized versus non-glacierized catchment areas will influence both the identity and relative abundance of microbial taxa in transport. Streamwater samples were taken at the same time each day over a period of 3 weeks (summer 2018) to identify temporal patterns in microbial assemblages for three outlet glaciers of the GrIS, which differed in glacier size (smallest to largest; Russell, Leverett, and Isunnguata Sermia [IS]) and their glacierized: proglacial catchment area ratio (Leverett, 76; Isunnguata Sermia, 25; Russell, 2). DNA was extracted from samples, and 16S rRNA gene amplicons sequenced to characterize the structure of assemblages. We found that microbial diversity was significantly greater in Isunnguata Sermia and Russell Glacier rivers compared to Leverett Glacier, the latter of which having the smallest relative proglacial catchment area. Furthermore, the microbial diversity of the former two catchments continued to increase over monitored period, presumably due to increasing hydrologic connectivity with proglacial habitats. Meanwhile, diversity decreased over the monitored period in Leverett, which may have resulted from the evolution of an efficient subglacial drainage system. Linear discriminant analysis further revealed that bacteria characteristic to soils were disproportionately represented in the Isunnguata Sermia river, while putative methylotrophs were disproportionately abundant in Russell Glacier. Meanwhile, taxa typical for glacierized habitats (i.e., Rhodoferax and Polaromonas) dominated in the Leverett Glacier river. Our findings suggest that the proportion of deglaciated catchment area is more influential to suspended microbial assemblage structure than absolute glacier size, and improve our understanding of hydrological flowpaths, particulate entrainment, and transport.

Dataset Information

Surface Pond Energy Absorption Across Four Himalayan Glaciers Accounts for 1/8 of Total Catchment Ice Loss.

Publications

Surface Pond Energy Absorption Across Four Himalayan Glaciers Accounts for 1/8 of Total Catchment Ice Loss.

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