Davies, B. orcid.org/0000-0002-8636-1813, McNabb, R. orcid.org/0000-0003-0016-493X, Bendle, J. et al. (7 more authors) (2024) Accelerating glacier volume loss on Juneau icefield driven by hypsometry and melt-accelerating feedbacks. Nature Communications, 15. 5099.
Abstract
Globally, glaciers and icefields contribute significantly to sea level rise. Here we show that ice loss from Juneau Icefield, a plateau icefield in Alaska, accelerated after 2005 AD. Rates of area shrinkage were 5 times faster from 2015–2019 than from 1979–1990. Glacier volume loss remained fairly consistent (0.65–1.01 km<jats:sup>3</jats:sup> a<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>) from 1770–1979 AD, rising to 3.08–3.72 km<jats:sup>3</jats:sup> a<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> from 1979–2010, and then doubling after 2010 AD, reaching 5.91 ± 0.80 km<jats:sup>3</jats:sup> a<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> (2010–2020). Thinning has become pervasive across the icefield plateau since 2005, accompanied by glacier recession and fragmentation. Rising equilibrium line altitudes and increasing ablation across the plateau has driven a series of hypsometrically controlled melt-accelerating feedbacks and resulted in the observed acceleration in mass loss. As glacier thinning on the plateau continues, a mass balance-elevation feedback is likely to inhibit future glacier regrowth, potentially pushing glaciers beyond a dynamic tipping point.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2024. 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 licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence 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 licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Climate change; Cryospheric science |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Geography (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 04 Jul 2024 14:05 |
Last Modified: | 04 Jul 2024 14:05 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-49269-y |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-024-49269-y |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:214398 |