Sikuliqiruq: ice dynamics of the Meade River – Arctic Alaska, from freezeup to breakup from time-series ground imagery

Abstract

Ice formation and breakup on Arctic rivers strongly influence river flow, sedimentation, river ecology, winter travel, and subsistence fishing and hunting by Alaskan Natives. We use time-series ground imagery of the Meade River to examine the process at high temporal and spatial resolution. Freezeup from complete liquid cover to complete ice cover of the Meade River at Atqasuk, Alaska in the fall of 2008 occurred in less than three days between 28 September and 2 October 2008. Breakup in 2009 occurred in less than two hours between 23:47 UTC on 23 May 2009 and 01:27 UTC on 24 May 2009. All times in UTC. Breakup in 2009 and 2010 was of the thermal style in contrast to the mechanical style observed in 1966 and is consistent with a warming Arctic.

Contrasting Historical and Recent Breakup Styles on the Meade River of Arctic Alaska in the Context of a Warming Climate

“…The spring 2009 ground imagery showed a breakup process much closer to the thermal end member than the mechanical end member for river breakup as described by Beltaos [5,18]. Here we present new time-series ground imagery for 2010 and 2012 and a statistical analysis of long-term meteorological data for the Atqasuk, Alaska region that indicate a contrast between The ACIA prediction for a transition from mechanical to thermal breakup on arctic rivers is predicated on increasing spring temperatures [14] resulting in a longer "onset" (of melting) phase of breakup [5].…”

“…Mean daily surface air temperatures for the Atqasuk area collected as part of the NSF Circumarctic Lake Observing Network (CALON) [20] [4,14,15] as documented by our time-series ground imagery [18]. We do not have imagery from spring 2011.…”

“…One rare exception is the time-series photographic study of the process of river ice breakup at Atqasuk on the Meade River (Kuulugruaq) of arctic Alaska during the spring of 1966 [16] (Figure 1). In order to examine the process of spring breakup on the Meade River at Atqasuk on the central North Slope of Alaska (Figure 2) in the context of the 1966 study as well as interviews with local inhabitants that described a much more violent mechanical process of spring river breakup in the past [17], we established an automated camera system approximately 1.6 km north (downstream) of the 1966 study site that successfully captured timeseries ground imagery of spring breakup of 2009 [18] for comparison.…”

A leverage points perspective on Arctic Indigenous food systems research: a systematic review

“…Traditional foods in focus include marine mammals (Regehr et al 2021;Ashjian et al 2010), anadromous fish species (Steiner et al 2019;Fechhelm et al 2007), and seabirds (Lovvorn et al 2018). The literature in this cluster also pays special attention to the role of ice and snow in marine-centred Arctic Indigenous food systems (Callaghan et al 2012;Beck et al 2010). Also situated in this cluster is research on foodsheds or ice cellars and their architectural features (Maslakov et al 2020;Gerlach and Loring 2013).…”