Atmospheric forcing of rapid marine-terminating glacier retreat in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Atmospheric forcing; Canadian Arctic Archipelago; Climate system; Glacier retreat; Greenland; Oceanic temperature; Sub-surface ocean; Multidisciplinary

Abstract :

[en] The Canadian Arctic Archipelago contains >300 glaciers that terminate in the ocean, but little is known about changes in their frontal positions in response to recent changes in the ocean-climate system. Here, we examine changes in glacier frontal positions since the 1950s and investigate the relative influence of oceanic temperature versus atmospheric temperature. Over 94% of glaciers retreated between 1958 and 2015, with a region-wide trend of gradual retreat before ~2000, followed by a fivefold increase in retreat rates up to 2015. Retreat patterns show no correlation with changes in subsurface ocean temperatures, in clear contrast to the dominance of ocean forcing in western Greenland and elsewhere. Rather, significant correlations with surface melt indicate that increased atmospheric temperature has been the primary driver of the acceleration in marine-terminating glacier frontal retreat in this region.

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography

Author, co-author :

Cook, Alison J ; Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK ; Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

Copland, Luke ; Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada

Noël, Brice ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géographie > Climatologie et Topoclimatologie ; Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU), Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

Stokes, Chris R; Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK

Bentley, Michael J ; Department of Geography, Durham University, Durham, UK

Sharp, Martin J ; Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

Bingham, Robert G ; School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

van den Broeke, Michiel R ; Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research (IMAU), Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands

Language :

English

Title :

Atmospheric forcing of rapid marine-terminating glacier retreat in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Publication date :

March 2019

Journal title :

Science Advances

eISSN :

2375-2548

Publisher :

American Association for the Advancement of Science, United States

Volume :

Issue :

Pages :

eaau8507

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://syndication.highwire.org/content/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aau8507

Funders :

NSERC - Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council [CA]
Leverhulme Trust [GB]

Funding text :

We would like to thank NRCan, GLIMS, U.S. Geological Survey, CMEMS, the National Centers for Environmental Information, the Government of Canada, and the World Glacier Monitoring Service for access to datasets. We would also like to thank P. Whitehouse for processing the CMEMS data. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful suggestions that improved the manuscript. A.J.C. was supported by a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship and the Department of Geography, Durham University. Additional funding was provided by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, University of Ottawa, and Canada Foundation for Innovation. B.P.Y.N. and M.R.v.d.B. acknowledge funding from the Netherlands Earth System Science Centre (NESSSC) and the Polar Program of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO/NPP).

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since 21 April 2023

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