Cryospheric science articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Remote sensing observations of mountain snow depth are still lacking for the Northern Hemisphere mountains. Here authors use Sentinel-1 satellite radar measurements to assess the snow depth in mountainous areas at 1 km² resolution and show that the Sentinel-1 retrievals capture the spatial variability between and within mountain ranges, as well as their inter-annual differences.

    • Hans Lievens
    • , Matthias Demuzere
    •  & Gabrielle J. M. De Lannoy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Accurate measurements of the past extent of the Greenland ice sheet are crucial to understand its response to changing climate conditions. Here, the authors present a dust record from an ice core from the east coast of Greenland to provide detailed time constraints on ice sheet advance and retreat over the last interglacials.

    • Marius Folden Simonsen
    • , Giovanni Baccolo
    •  & Paul Vallelonga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Surface meltwater is known to influence the dynamics of some glaciers and the Greenland ice sheet. Here, the authors have identified the first examples of the drainage of surface meltwater to the bed of outlet glaciers on the Antarctic Peninsula that trigger large and rapid accelerations of ice flow.

    • Peter A. Tuckett
    • , Jeremy C. Ely
    •  & Joshua Howard

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There was extensive degradation during the warm middle Holocene and permafrost area was reduced substantially. Here the authors synthesize data across the Tibetan permafrost region and find that paleoclimate is more important than modern climate in shaping current permafrost carbon distribution, and its importance increases with soil depth.

    • Jinzhi Ding
    • , Tao Wang
    •  & Lin Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How global climatic changes are translated into ice-sheet fluctuations and sea-level change is not well understood. Here the authors present a compilation of empirical data and numerical modelling results of pre-LGM Northern Hemisphere ice sheet changes and show pronounced ice-sheet asymmetry within the last glacial cycle and significant variations in ice-marginal positions between older glacial cycles.

    • Christine L. Batchelor
    • , Martin Margold
    •  & Andrea Manica

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Ice sheets have long been overlooked as regulators of the global carbon cycle. In this Review, Wadham and colleagues show how the growth and retreat of ice sheets support the productivity of the oceans and variably store or release organic carbon–in effect, these frozen landscapes must be considered in future assessments of climate impacts on biogeochemical cycling.

    • J. L. Wadham
    • , J. R. Hawkings
    •  & K. E. Kohfeld

  • Article
    | Open Access

    El Niño warms the tropical Atlantic, which in turn induces an anomalous Rossby wave train, triggering Arctic sea-ice growth and Eurasian warming in the El Niño decay year. This teleconnection via the tropical Atlantic and the Arctic in La Niña decay year contributes to Eurasian cold winter extremes.

    • Shinji Matsumura
    •  & Yu Kosaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Observation systems are not sufficient to determine the relationship between mélange strength and calving frequency. Here the authors used the derivation of digital elevation models from radar interferometry data to study Jakobshavn Isbræ and show an inverse correlation between mélange thickness and calving rate.

    • Surui Xie
    • , Timothy H. Dixon
    •  & Irena Vaňková

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Soils in the northern permafrost region contain large quantities of organic carbon, formed over long time scales under cold climates. Here the authors test a number of soil properties and show that soil organic carbon is the dominant factor controlling thermal diffusivity among 200 sites in high latitude regions.

    • Dan Zhu
    • , Philippe Ciais
    •  & Gustaf Hugelius

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting the friction at the ice/bedrock interface prevents a full understanding of glacier dynamics. Here, the authors present a framework for the transient evolution of basal shear stress and incorporate it in glacier simulations. This tool is capable of explaining surge onset and propagation.

    • Kjetil Thøgersen
    • , Adrien Gilbert
    •  & Anders Malthe-Sørenssen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Nonlinear transitions in permafrost carbon feedback and surface albedo feedback have largely been excluded from climate policy studies. Here the authors modelled the dynamics of the two nonlinear feedbacks and the associated uncertainty, and found an important contribution to warming which leads to additional economic losses from climate change.

    • Dmitry Yumashev
    • , Chris Hope
    •  & Gail Whiteman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Sublimation of ice is believed to have generated a variety of landforms on Mars and other planetary bodies. Here the authors show the first long-term in situ effective diffusion coefficient of terrestrial ice-free loess (Mars analog soil), scaled to Mars average pressure, temperature and CO2 atmosphere.

    • Thomas A. Douglas
    •  & Michael T. Mellon

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Traditional precipitation isotope archives (e.g., ice cores) are fundamental to our knowledge of past climate but limited to glaciated locales. Here the authors show that pore ice in relict permafrost holds equal promise as a proxy and use it to provide insights on the Holocene summer climate history of northwestern Canada.

    • Trevor J. Porter
    • , Spruce W. Schoenemann
    •  & Duane G. Froese

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Glacier meltwater can penetrate the glacier bed and act as a lubricant, accelerating retreat. Here, the authors use the unique Glacsweb wireless probe at Skálafellsjökull in Iceland and find evidence for two types of stick-slip events: small diurnal events in summer and large multiday events in winter.

    • Jane K. Hart
    • , Kirk Martinez
    •  & David S. Young

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Meltwater ponding on top of ice shelves is thought to play a role in ice-shelf flexure and fracture, however in-situ evidence of these mechanisms is lacking. Here, the authors provide field-based evidence showing the impact of the filling and draining of four surface lakes on ice-shelf flexure in Antarctica.

    • Alison F. Banwell
    • , Ian C. Willis
    •  & Douglas R. MacAyeal

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    The evolution of the Antarctic Ice Sheet is driven by a combination of climate forcing and non-climatic feedbacks. In this review, the authors focus on feedbacks between the Antarctic Ice Sheet and the solid Earth, and the role of these feedbacks in shaping the response of the ice sheet to past and future climate changes.

    • Pippa L. Whitehouse
    • , Natalya Gomez
    •  & Douglas A. Wiens

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The estimation of volcanic contribution to climate variability requires identification of global-scale eruptions. Here the authors present a new 2600-year chronology of stratospheric volcanic events that relies on isotopic signature of ice core sulfate, that improves ice core volcanic reconstruction.

    • E. Gautier
    • , J. Savarino
    •  & J. Farquhar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Shrinking Arctic Canada ice caps are revealing preserved landscapes containing a record of past glacier activity. Here the authors show that 14C ages of plants and cosmogenic 14C concentrations from these landscapes indicate that recently exposed landscapes have been continuously ice covered for > 40,000 years.

    • Simon L. Pendleton
    • , Gifford H. Miller
    •  & Robert S. Anderson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ocean warming contributes to the thinning of the Antarctic ice shelves, however, lack of observations has prevented a quantification of this contribution. Here the authors use geological records to show that 0.3–1.5 °C ocean warming has played a central role on regional ice shelf instability over the last 9000 years.

    • Johan Etourneau
    • , Giovanni Sgubin
    •  & Jung-Hyun Kim

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Antarctic sea ice extent declined dramatically in austral spring 2016. This study shows the decline was initially driven by tropical convection resulting in a wave-3 circulation pattern, followed by weakened circumpolar surface westerlies initialised in the polar stratospheric vortex.

    • Guomin Wang
    • , Harry H. Hendon
    •  & Peter van Rensch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Permafrost thaw poses a serious threat to the sustainable development of Arctic communities. Here the authors show that most fundamental Arctic infrastructure and population will be at high hazard risk, even if the Paris Agreement target is achieved.

    • Jan Hjort
    • , Olli Karjalainen
    •  & Miska Luoto

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Subsurface ice-sheet radar images reveal large plume-shaped bodies rising from the base, with their origin not yet understood. Here, the authors show that freeze-on of water at the ice-sheet base combined with ice-flux explains the vertical extent, shape and structure of the observed plumes.

    • G. J.-M. C. Leysinger Vieli
    • , C. Martín
    •  & M. P. Lüthi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Permafrost-derived carbon (C) may have been an additional source of greenhouse gases during the last glacial-interglacial transition. Here the authors show that ancient C from degrading permafrost was mobilised during phases of rapid sea-level rise, partially explaining changes in atmospheric CO2 and ∆14C.

    • Maria Winterfeld
    • , Gesine Mollenhauer
    •  & Ralf Tiedemann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Permafrost carbon feedback modeling has focused on gradual thaw of near-surface permafrost leading to greenhouse gas emissions that accelerate climate change. Here the authors show that deeper, abrupt thaw beneath lakes will more than double radiative forcing from permafrost-soil carbon fluxes this century.

    • Katey Walter Anthony
    • , Thomas Schneider von Deimling
    •  & Guido Grosse

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Across all glaciers, ice caps, and ice sheets, the gravitational driving stress, and therefore the average basal shear stress falls in a narrow range that tops out around 1 bar. Here, the authors show that the mechanical resistance posed by heterogeneous infiltration of ice into sediments governs the peak bed strength.

    • Colin R. Meyer
    • , Anthony S. Downey
    •  & Alan W. Rempel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ice sheets are vulnerable to changes in the environment where ice discharges into the ocean. Here, the authors show that, in spite of widespread retreat following the last glacial maximum, a sub-sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in the Ross Sea underwent sustained readvance.

    • Sarah L. Greenwood
    • , Lauren M. Simkins
    •  & John B. Anderson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Low frequency intrinsic ocean variability has an unknown impact on Antarctic ice shelves, yet can arise even in the absence of varying climate forcing. Here, the authors show that this variability significantly affects modelled basal melting under the Totten Ice Shelf, with implications for the attribution of change.

    • David E. Gwyther
    • , Terence J. O’Kane
    •  & Jamin S. Greenbaum

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Future permafrost thaw may be underestimated unless effects of wildfire are considered. Here the authors show that wildfires in boreal permafrost peatlands influence soil temperature and seasonal thaw depth for several decades, and increase the rate of complete permafrost thaw along permafrost edges.

    • Carolyn M. Gibson
    • , Laura E. Chasmer
    •  & David Olefeldt

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ice sheet models forced by climate model output indicate ice-sheet retreat during the Pliocene, yet concerns remain regarding potential model bias. Here, the authors present results from the Pliocene Ice-sheet Modelling Intercomparison Project, and show that results are highly dependent on the model forcing used.

    • Aisling M. Dolan
    • , Bas de Boer
    •  & Alan M. Haywood

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Greenland Ice Sheet has increasingly lost mass over the past few decades, yet the contribution from glaciers in Northeast Greenland is difficult to quantify. Here, the authors show that the floating part of 79 North Glacier has continuously lost mass since at least 2001, with a very high annual variability.

    • Christoph Mayer
    • , Janin Schaffer
    •  & Clemens Schannwell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Dansgaard-Oeschger events are remarkable examples of abrupt climate changes during the last ice age, yet a physical explanation remains debated. Here, Boers shows that these events are preceded by early-warning signals in the high-frequency variability, providing valuable constraints regarding physical causes.

    • Niklas Boers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The West Antarctic Ice Sheet sits atop an extensional rift system with volcano-like features, yet we do not know if any of these volcanoes are active, because identifying subglacial volcanism remains a challenge. Here, the authors find evidence in helium isotopes that a large volcanic heat source is emanating from beneath the fast-melting Pine Island Ice Glacier.

    • Brice Loose
    • , Alberto C. Naveira Garabato
    •  & Karen J. Heywood

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Understudied in the Antarctic system are the subsurface interfaces between ice-sheet, ocean and geological substrate. Here, the authors review our understanding of these components and propose new avenues of holistic dynamic modeling to achieve a unified understanding of past, present and future polar climate.

    • Florence Colleoni
    • , Laura De Santis
    •  & Martin J. Siegert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Submarine glacial landforms are used to reconstruct the Holocene retreat dynamics and stability of Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland. Here, a large grounding-zone wedge at the mouth of Petermann fjord indicates a period of glacier stability, with final retreat likely driven by marine ice cliff instability.

    • Martin Jakobsson
    • , Kelly A. Hogan
    •  & Christian Stranne

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Estimating the magnitude of radiative and non-radiative feedbacks is key for understanding the climate dynamics of polar regions. Here the authors propose an inclusive methodology to quantify the influence of all those feedbacks, stimulating more systematic analyses in observational and model ensembles.

    • Hugues Goosse
    • , Jennifer E. Kay
    •  & Martin Vancoppenolle

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The outlet glaciers that comprise the Northeast Greenland Ice Stream (NEGIS) have experienced accelerated retreat in recent years, yet their longterm stability remains unclear. Here, via cosmogenic surface exposure and radiocarbon ages, the authors investigate the stability of the NEGIS for the past 45 kyr.

    • Nicolaj K. Larsen
    • , Laura B. Levy
    •  & Daniel S. Skov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Southern Ocean is key in sustaining the world’s ocean global circulation, yet the influence of its freshwater cycle remains unconstrained. Here, the authors use a detailed oceanographic database to evaluate surface buoyancy fluxes and reveal central roles for both precipitation and sea-ice formation and melt.

    • Violaine Pellichero
    • , Jean-Baptiste Sallée
    •  & Stephanie M. Downes

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Microplastic (MP) pollution in polar regions is a growing environmental concern, yet little is known regarding the role of sea-ice as a sink and transport vector of MPs. Here, the authors show that MPs in sea-ice have no uniform polymer composition and observe unique MP patterns in different sea-ice horizons.

    • Ilka Peeken
    • , Sebastian Primpke
    •  & Gunnar Gerdts

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ice grounding features discovered in the Arctic Basin, in water depths exceeding 1 km and dated to the penultimate glacial, suggest a past Arctic ice shelf. Here, the authors undertake numerical simulations that shed light on how such an ice shelf could have formed, its dynamics and most likely configuration.

    • Edward G. W. Gasson
    • , Robert M. DeConto
    •  & Chris D. Clark

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