Winter seal-based observations reveal glacial meltwater surfacing in the southeastern Amundsen Sea

Yixi Zheng; Karen Heywood; Benjamin Webber; David Stevens; Louise Biddle; Lars Boehme; Brice Loose

doi:10.1038/s43247-021-00111-z

Winter seal-based observations reveal glacial meltwater surfacing in the southeastern Amundsen Sea

Yixi Zheng^*, Karen Heywood, Benjamin Webber, David Stevens, Louise Biddle, Lars Boehme, Brice Loose

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Determining the injection of glacial meltwater into the polar oceans is crucial for quantifying the response of the climate system to ice sheet mass loss. However, meltwater is poorly observed and its pathways poorly known, especially in winter. Here we present winter meltwater distribution in the eastern Amundsen Sea near Pine Island Glacier, revealing a highly variable meltwater distribution with two meltwater-rich layers in the upper 250 m and at around 450 m, connected by scattered meltwater-rich columns. We show that the hydrographic signature of meltwater is clearest in winter, when its presence can be unambiguously mapped throughout the water column. We argue that the buoyant meltwater provides near-surface nutrient that enhances productivity and heat that helps maintain polynyas, close to ice shelves across the Amundsen Sea. Therefore, although the processes determining the distribution of meltwater are challenging, they are important to represent in Earth system models.

Original language	English
Article number	40
Number of pages	9
Journal	Communications Earth & Environment
Volume	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00111-z
Publication status	Published - 5 Mar 2021

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Access to Document

10.1038/s43247-021-00111-z

Zheng-2021-Winter-seal-based-observations-CE&E-2-40-CCBY
Copyright © The Author(s) 2021. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 1.81 MBLicence: CC BY

NSFPLR-NERC Thwaites-Amundsen Regional: NSFPLR-NERC Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network (TARSAN)
Boehme, L. (PI)
1/07/18 → 30/06/23
Project: Standard

Time series of temperature, conductivity and pressure from a recovered seal-tag in the Amundsen Sea (Dataset)
Zheng, Y. (Creator), Heywood, K. (Creator), Webber, B. (Creator), Stevens, D. (Creator), Michael, F. (Creator), Heywood, K. (Contributor), Fedak, M. (Contributor), Wellner, J. (Contributor), Larter, R. (Contributor), Moss, S. (Contributor), Barham, M. (Contributor), Boehme, L. (Contributor) & Bortolotto, G. A. (Contributor), Zenodo, 10 Jan 2024
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.10478506
Dataset

Cite this

@article{5c93500c4b8049cc85a7dcb83fedbefc,

title = "Winter seal-based observations reveal glacial meltwater surfacing in the southeastern Amundsen Sea",

abstract = "Determining the injection of glacial meltwater into the polar oceans is crucial for quantifying the response of the climate system to ice sheet mass loss. However, meltwater is poorly observed and its pathways poorly known, especially in winter. Here we present winter meltwater distribution in the eastern Amundsen Sea near Pine Island Glacier, revealing a highly variable meltwater distribution with two meltwater-rich layers in the upper 250 m and at around 450 m, connected by scattered meltwater-rich columns. We show that the hydrographic signature of meltwater is clearest in winter, when its presence can be unambiguously mapped throughout the water column. We argue that the buoyant meltwater provides near-surface nutrient that enhances productivity and heat that helps maintain polynyas, close to ice shelves across the Amundsen Sea. Therefore, although the processes determining the distribution of meltwater are challenging, they are important to represent in Earth system models. ",

author = "Yixi Zheng and Karen Heywood and Benjamin Webber and David Stevens and Louise Biddle and Lars Boehme and Brice Loose",

note = "Funding: This work is funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council under the iSTAR Programme through grants NE/J005703/1 (K.J.H., D.P.S., B.G.M.W.); European Research Council (under H2020-EU.1.1.) under research grant COMPASS (Climate-relevant Ocean Measurements and Processes on the Antarctic continental Shelf and Slope, grant agreement ID: 741120, K.J.H., Y.Z.); National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs and Natural Environment Research Council under the research grant TARSAN (Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network, NSF PLR 1738992 and NE/S006419/1, K.J.H.).Y.Z. is supported by China Scholarship Council and University of East Anglia. L.C.B. is supported by a Wallenberg Academy Fellowship (WAF 2015.0186) and Swedish Research Council grant (VR2019-04400) of S. Swart.",

year = "2021",

month = mar,

day = "5",

doi = "10.1038/s43247-021-00111-z",

language = "English",

volume = "2",

journal = "Communications Earth & Environment",

issn = "2662-4435",

publisher = "Nature Publishing Group UK",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Winter seal-based observations reveal glacial meltwater surfacing in the southeastern Amundsen Sea

AU - Zheng, Yixi

AU - Heywood, Karen

AU - Webber, Benjamin

AU - Stevens, David

AU - Biddle, Louise

AU - Boehme, Lars

AU - Loose, Brice

N1 - Funding: This work is funded by the UK Natural Environment Research Council under the iSTAR Programme through grants NE/J005703/1 (K.J.H., D.P.S., B.G.M.W.); European Research Council (under H2020-EU.1.1.) under research grant COMPASS (Climate-relevant Ocean Measurements and Processes on the Antarctic continental Shelf and Slope, grant agreement ID: 741120, K.J.H., Y.Z.); National Science Foundation Division of Polar Programs and Natural Environment Research Council under the research grant TARSAN (Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network, NSF PLR 1738992 and NE/S006419/1, K.J.H.).Y.Z. is supported by China Scholarship Council and University of East Anglia. L.C.B. is supported by a Wallenberg Academy Fellowship (WAF 2015.0186) and Swedish Research Council grant (VR2019-04400) of S. Swart.

PY - 2021/3/5

Y1 - 2021/3/5

N2 - Determining the injection of glacial meltwater into the polar oceans is crucial for quantifying the response of the climate system to ice sheet mass loss. However, meltwater is poorly observed and its pathways poorly known, especially in winter. Here we present winter meltwater distribution in the eastern Amundsen Sea near Pine Island Glacier, revealing a highly variable meltwater distribution with two meltwater-rich layers in the upper 250 m and at around 450 m, connected by scattered meltwater-rich columns. We show that the hydrographic signature of meltwater is clearest in winter, when its presence can be unambiguously mapped throughout the water column. We argue that the buoyant meltwater provides near-surface nutrient that enhances productivity and heat that helps maintain polynyas, close to ice shelves across the Amundsen Sea. Therefore, although the processes determining the distribution of meltwater are challenging, they are important to represent in Earth system models.

AB - Determining the injection of glacial meltwater into the polar oceans is crucial for quantifying the response of the climate system to ice sheet mass loss. However, meltwater is poorly observed and its pathways poorly known, especially in winter. Here we present winter meltwater distribution in the eastern Amundsen Sea near Pine Island Glacier, revealing a highly variable meltwater distribution with two meltwater-rich layers in the upper 250 m and at around 450 m, connected by scattered meltwater-rich columns. We show that the hydrographic signature of meltwater is clearest in winter, when its presence can be unambiguously mapped throughout the water column. We argue that the buoyant meltwater provides near-surface nutrient that enhances productivity and heat that helps maintain polynyas, close to ice shelves across the Amundsen Sea. Therefore, although the processes determining the distribution of meltwater are challenging, they are important to represent in Earth system models.

U2 - 10.1038/s43247-021-00111-z

DO - 10.1038/s43247-021-00111-z

M3 - Article

SN - 2662-4435

VL - 2

JO - Communications Earth & Environment

JF - Communications Earth & Environment

M1 - 40

ER -

Winter seal-based observations reveal glacial meltwater surfacing in the southeastern Amundsen Sea

Abstract

UN SDGs

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

NSFPLR-NERC Thwaites-Amundsen Regional: NSFPLR-NERC Thwaites-Amundsen Regional Survey and Network (TARSAN)

Datasets

Time series of temperature, conductivity and pressure from a recovered seal-tag in the Amundsen Sea (Dataset)

Cite this