Geophys. Res. Lett. http://doi.org/b5hq (2017)
River icings — accumulations of ice formed when water flows onto a frozen surface and freezes — are one of the dominant forms of ice that influence the flow and morphology of Arctic rivers. The response of these features to climate change remains poorly documented, however.
Tamlin Pavelsky from the University of North Carolina and Jay Zarnetske from Michigan State University (both USA) use daily satellite imagery over the period 2000–2015 to identify 147 large river icings in Arctic Alaska and Canada. Of the 122 icings that fully melt each summer, 70 were found to be disappearing much earlier in the summer. Of the 25 that usually persist through the entire summer, 14 had significantly smaller minimum extents. None were getting larger or disappearing later.
These rapid documented declines suggest that Arctic hydroclimatic systems are also changing rapidly. River icing meltwater is especially important to Arctic rivers during summer low-flow periods and if the trend of rapid decline continues it may lead to alterations in river flow and morphology that will impact the ecosystems they support.
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Brown, A. Declining Arctic river icings. Nature Clim Change 7, 314 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3290
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3290
