Dataset Information

Atlantic water intrusion triggers rapid retreat and regime change at previously stable Greenland glacier.

ABSTRACT: Ice discharge from Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers contributes to half of all mass loss from the ice sheet, with numerous mechanisms proposed to explain their retreat. Here, we examine K.I.V Steenstrups Nordre Bræ ('Steenstrup') in Southeast Greenland, which, between 2018 and 2021, retreated ~7 km, thinned ~20%, doubled in discharge, and accelerated ~300%. This rate of change is unprecedented amongst Greenland's glaciers and now places Steenstrup in the top 10% of glaciers by contribution to ice-sheet-wide discharge. In contrast to expected behaviour from a shallow, grounded tidewater glacier, Steenstrup was insensitive to high surface temperatures that destabilised many regional glaciers in 2016, appearing instead to respond to a >2 °C anomaly in deeper Atlantic water (AW) in 2018. By 2021, a rigid proglacial mélange had developed alongside notable seasonal variability. Steenstrup's behaviour highlights that even long-term stable glaciers with high sills are vulnerable to sudden and rapid retreat from warm AW intrusion.

SUBMITTER: Chudley TR

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10115864 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Atlantic water intrusion triggers rapid retreat and regime change at previously stable Greenland glacier.

Chudley T R TR Howat I M IM King M D MD Negrete A A

Nature communications 20230419 1

Ice discharge from Greenland's marine-terminating glaciers contributes to half of all mass loss from the ice sheet, with numerous mechanisms proposed to explain their retreat. Here, we examine K.I.V Steenstrups Nordre Bræ ('Steenstrup') in Southeast Greenland, which, between 2018 and 2021, retreated ~7 km, thinned ~20%, doubled in discharge, and accelerated ~300%. This rate of change is unprecedented amongst Greenland's glaciers and now places Steenstrup in the top 10% of glaciers by contributio ...[more]

PMID: 37076489

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Project description:Due to global warming, the worldwide retreat of glaciers is causing changes in species diversity, community composition, and species interactions. However, the impact of glacier retreat on interaction diversity and ecological networks remains poorly understood. An integrative understanding of network dynamics may inform conservation actions that support biodiversity and ecosystem functioning after glacier extinction. Here, we address how glacier retreat affects the frequency, diversity, and complexity of plant-pollinator interactions, both directly and indirectly through biodiversity change. We surveyed flower visitors (pollinators) and analyzed pollination networks across a gradient of 170 years of glacier retreat (Mont Miné glacier, Valais, Switzerland) which ranges from patchy grasslands to closed forests. We reported a strong impact of glacier retreat on both plant and pollinator communities. Notably, the diversity of plant-pollinator interactions was sharply affected by glacier retreat: interaction diversity increased few years after glacier retreat, but it ultimately decreased in late stages dominated by forests. In contrast, we found that plant-pollinator network complexity did not change with glacier retreat. Our results indicate that the development of plant-pollinator networks is a two-phases process. In the first phase, glacier retreat makes space to plant colonization. This initial increase in plant diversity drives the increase in pollinator and interaction diversity. The second phase is characterized by turnover as woody species encroaches and dominates the community, decreasing the diversity of plant species in ultimate instance. The local decrease of plant diversity leads to a local decrease in pollinator and interaction diversity. Slowing down woody encroachment and enhancing flower diversity, which is initially supported by the glacial landscape, may be key strategies for halting the erosion of ecological networks while increasing biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Our research thus can help resolve the overarching question of how to conserve ecosystems once glaciers are extinct, pointing toward a composite role of both habitat structure and biological functions. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00035-024-00309-9.

Dataset Information

Atlantic water intrusion triggers rapid retreat and regime change at previously stable Greenland glacier.

Publications

Atlantic water intrusion triggers rapid retreat and regime change at previously stable Greenland glacier.

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