Exploring the Spatial and Temporal Variability in Water Column Properties in Tidewater Glacier-Ocean Systems in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago

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• Claire Parrott, University of British Columbia
• Wednesday 09 April 2025, 15:00-16:00
• BAS Seminar Room 2.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Dr Birgit Rogalla.

The Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) is home to over 300 marine-terminating glaciers facing retreat with ongoing Arctic change, increasing glacial meltwater delivery to the ocean. Subglacial discharge can produce meltwater plumes that promote upwelling and enhance mixing near glacier termini, impacting water column structure, turbidity, and other biogeochemical properties in the proximate ocean. Despite their abundance, knowledge is lacking on glacier-ocean systems across the CAA , specifically how glacial meltwater is influencing and modifying the marine environment in the coastal ocean. This talk explores the 4 years of late summer in-situ observations of marine-terminating glacier-ocean systems and non-glacierized systems in Jones Sound, a glacier rich region of the CAA . Specifically, we examine the systematic influence of marine-terminating glacier presence on the chemical and physical marine environment and contrast marine-terminating glacier systems with riverine systems in the same region. We find marine-terminating glaciers host late-summer nutrient enhancement above the region’s characteristic nutricline year over year. This contrasts riverine systems that show rare nutrient enhancement above the characteristic nutricline. Ongoing retreat may shift these systems towards riverine-like systems, reducing this above-nutricline nutrient enhancement that may impact phytoplankton community composition, which may have subsequent impacts on carbon sequestration and food web function. This work also informs the Inuit community of Ausuittuq (Grise Fiord, NU), who live in Jones Sound and use the neighbouring ocean for traditional hunting, culture, and economic benefit, about the ongoing change in their local environment.

This talk is part of the British Antarctic Survey - Polar Oceans seminar series series.

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