Our study considers climate change and its influence upon the hydrology and water balance of the glacierized Bayelva watershed in Svalbard. We find that changes are most noticeable within the last 10 years, when winters have become warmer and wetter. The change is most significant during the shoulder months, especially September, when the transition from summer ablation to winter accumulation is taking place. Winter rainfalls, when extreme, produce ground icings and runoff outside the summer period. Dependent upon summer air temperatures, these icings may either melt and produce additional runoff or persist until the following hydrological year. These processes have a direct influence upon the water budget. They represent sources of error for water-balance calculations that either ignore winter runoff events and/or assume water storage is negligible. We show that even when the watershed is underlain by permafrost and accommodates cold-based glaciers, storage can no longer be ignored. Furthermore, we find that the use of a precipitation gradient correction of 19% per 100 m, a gauge catch correction and glacier mass-balance data (for snow accumulation and icemelt runoff) should be used for accurate water-balance calculations. We also find that despite sustained glacier retreat, annual runoff volume showed no trend during 1989–2010. Discharge is more variable and longer during the last decade due to the winter rainfalls. Finally, flow recession analyses reveal increasingly efficient evacuation of meltwater from the catchment and the increasing occurrence of a delayed flowpath through the glaciers’ forefield

Iron supplied by glacial weathering results in pronounced hotspots of biological production in an otherwise iron-limited Southern Ocean Ecosystem. However, glacial iron inputs are thought to be dominated by icebergs. Here we show that surface runoff from three island groups of the maritime Antarctic exports more filterable (<0.45 μm) iron (6–81 kg km−2 a−1) than icebergs (0.0–1.2 kg km−2 a−1). Glacier-fed streams also export more acid-soluble iron (27.0–18,500 kg km−2 a−1) associated with suspended sediment than icebergs (0–241 kg km−2 a−1). Significant fluxes of filterable and sediment-derived iron (1–10 Gg a−1 and 100–1,000 Gg a−1, respectively) are therefore likely to be delivered by runoff from the Antarctic continent. Although estuarine removal processes will greatly reduce their availability to coastal ecosystems, our results clearly indicate that riverine iron fluxes need to be accounted for as the volume of Antarctic melt increases in response to 21st century climate change.

The processes associated with the release of CH 4 and CO 2 from sub-permafrost groundwaters are considered through a year-long monitoring investigation at a terrestrial seepage site in West Spitsbergen. The site is an open system pingo thought to be associated with the uplift of a former sea-floor pockmark in response to marked isostatic recovery of the coastline following local ice sheet loss over the last 10,000 years. We find that locally significant emissions of CH 4 and (less so) CO 2 to the atmosphere result from a seepage <1 L s −1 that occurs all year. Hydrological and meteorological conditions strongly regulate the emissions, resulting in periodic outbursts of gas-rich fluids following ice fracture events in winter, and significant dilution of the fluids in early summer by meltwater. Evasion of both gases from a pond that forms during the 100 days summer (45.6 ± 10.0 gCH 4-C m −2 and 768 ± 211 gCO 2-C m −2) constitute between roughly 20 and 40% of the total annual emissions (223 gCH 4-C m −2 a −1 and 2,040 gCO 2-C m −2 a −1). Seasonal maximum dissolved CH 4 concentrations (up to 14.5 mg L −1 CH 4) are observed in the fluids that accumulate beneath the winter ice layer. However, seasonal maximum dissolved CO 2 levels (up to 233 mg L −1) occur during late summer. Differences between the δ 13 C-CH 4 composition of the winter samples [average 58.2 ± 8.01‰ (s.d.)] and the late summer samples [average 66.9 ± 5.75‰ (s.d.)] suggest minor oxidation during temporary storage beneath the winter ice lid, although a seasonal change in the methane source could also be responsible. However, this isotopic composition is strongly indicative of predominantly biogenic methane production in the marine sediments that lie beneath the thin coastal permafrost layer. Small hotpots of methane emission from sub-permafrost groundwater seepages therefore deserve careful monitoring for an understanding of seasonal methane emissions from permafrost landscapes.

No abstract

Snowmelt in the Antarctic Peninsula region has increased significantly in recent decades, leading to greater liquid water availability across a more expansive area. As a consequence, changes in the biological activity within wet Antarctic snow require consideration if we are to better understand terrestrial carbon cycling on Earth's coldest continent. This paper therefore examines the relationship between microbial communities and the chemical and physical environment of wet snow habitats on Livingston Island of the maritime Antarctic. In so doing, we reveal a strong reduction in bacterial diversity and autotrophic biomass within a short (<1 km) distance from the coast. Coastal snowpacks, fertilized by greater amounts of nutrients from rock debris and marine fauna, develop obvious, pigmented snow algal communities that control the absorption of visible light to a far greater extent than with the inland glacial snowpacks. Absorption by carotenoid pigments is most influential at the surface, while chlorophyll is most influential beneath it. The coastal snowpacks also indicate higher concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon and CO2 in interstitial air, as well as a close relationship between chlorophyll and dissolved organic carbon (DOC). As a consequence, the DOC resource available in coastal snow can support a more diverse bacterial community that includes microorganisms from a range of nearby terrestrial and marine habitats. Therefore, since further expansion of the melt zone will influence glacial snowpacks more than coastal ones, care must be taken when considering the types of communities that may be expected to evolve there.