Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T09:22:36.129Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hydrologic response to extreme warm and cold summers in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, East Antarctica

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2008

Peter T. Doran ,
Christopher P. McKay ,
Andrew G. Fountain ,
Thomas Nylen ,
Diane M. McKnight ,
Chris Jaros  and
John E. Barrett
Peter T. Doran*
Affiliation:
Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60607, USA
Christopher P. McKay
Affiliation:
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA 94035, USA
Andrew G. Fountain
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207-0751, USA
Thomas Nylen
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Portland State University, Portland, OR 97207-0751, USA
Diane M. McKnight
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, 1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
Chris Jaros
Affiliation:
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, 1560 30th Street, Campus Box 450, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
John E. Barrett
Affiliation:
Department of Biological Sciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
*
*[email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The meteorological characteristics and hydrological response of an extreme warm, and cold summer in the McMurdo Dry Valleys are compared. The driver behind the warmer summer conditions was the occurrence of down-valley winds, which were not present during the colder summer. Occurrence of the summer down-valley winds coincided with lower than typical mean sea level pressure in the Ross Sea region. There was no significant difference in the amount of solar radiation received during the two summers. Compared to the cold summer, glaciological and hydrological response to the warm summer in Taylor Valley included significant glacier mass loss, and 3- to nearly 6000-fold increase in annual streamflow. Lake levels decreased slightly during the cold summer, and increased between 0.54 and 1.01 m during the warm summer, effectively erasing the prior 14 years of lake level lowering in a period of three months. Lake level rise during the warm summer was shown to be strongly associated with and increase in degree days above freezing at higher elevations. We suggest that strong summer down-valley winds may have been responsible for the generation of large glacial lakes during the Last Glacial Maximum when ice core records recorded annual temperatures significantly colder than present.

Keywords

climateglaciershydrologylakespalaeoclimatestreams
Type
Earth Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 20 , Issue 5 , October 2008 , pp. 499 - 509
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bomblies, A., McKnight, D.M. & Andrews, E.D. 2001. Retrospective simulation of lake-level rise in Lake Bonney based on recent 21-year record: indication of recent climate change in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Journal of Paleolimnology, 25, 477–492.Google Scholar
Bromley, A.M. 1985. Weather observations: Wright Valley, Antarctica. Wellington New Zealand: New Zealand Meteorological Service. Information Publication, no. 11, 37 pp.Google Scholar
Chinn, T.J. 1993. Physical hydrology of the Dry Valley Lakes. Antarctic Research Series, 59, 1–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chinn, T.J.H. 1981. Hydrology and climate in the Ross Sea area. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 11(4), 373–386.Google Scholar
Chinn, T.J.H. 1987. Accelerated ablation at a glacier ice-cliff margin, Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Arctic and Alpine Research, 19, 71–80.Google Scholar
Clow, G.D., McKay, C.P., Simmons, G.M. Jr & Wharton, R.A. Jr 1988. Climatological observations and predicted sublimation rates at Lake Hoare, Antarctica. Journal of Climate, 1, 715–728.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cozzetto, K., McKnight, D., Nylen, T. & Fountain, A. 2006. Experimental investigations into processes controlling stream and hyporheic temperatures, Fryxell Basin, Antarctica. Advances in Water Resources, 29, 130–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doran, P.T., Fritsen, C.H., McKay, C.P., Priscu, J.C. & Adams, E.E. 2003. Formation and character of an ancient 19-m ice cover and underlying trapped brine in an “ice-sealed” east Antarctic lake. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100, 26–31.Google Scholar
Doran, P.T., McKay, C.P., Clow, G.D., Dana, G.L., Fountain, A., Nylen, T. & Lyons, W.B. 2002a. Valley floor climate observations from the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica, 1986–2000. Journal of Geophysical Research, 107, 4772–4784.Google Scholar
Doran, P.T., Priscu, J.C., Lyons, W.B., Walsh, J.E., Fountain, A.G., McKnight, D.M., Moorhead, D.L., Virginia, R.A., Wall, D.H., Clow, G.D., Fritsen, C.H., McKay, C.P. & Parsons, A.N. 2002b. Antarctic climate cooling and terrestrial ecosystem response. Nature, 415, 517–520.Google Scholar
Ebnet, A.F., Fountain, A., Nylen, T., McKnight, D. & Jaros, C. 2005. An temperature-index model of stream flow at below freezing temperatures in Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Annals of Glaciologiy, 40, 76–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fountain, A.G., Lewis, K.J. & Doran, P.T. 1999. Spatial climatic variation and its control on glacier equilibrium line altitude in Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Global and Planetary Change, 22, 1–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooseff, M.N., McKnight, D.M., Runke, R.L. & Vaughn, B.H. 2003. Determining long time-scale hyporheic zone flow paths in Antarctic streams. Hydrological Processes, 17, 1691–1710.Google Scholar
Hall, B.L. & Denton, G.H. 1996. Deglacial chronology of the western Ross Sea. Antarctic Journal of the United States, 31(2), 78–80.Google Scholar
Hall, B.L. & Denton, G.H. 2000a. Extent and chronology of the Ross Sea ice sheet and the Wilson Piedmont Glacier along the Scott Coast at and since the last glacial maximum. Geografiska Annaler, 82A, 337–363.Google Scholar
Hall, B.L. & Denton, G.H. 2000b. Radiocarbon chronology of Ross Sea drift, eastern Taylor Valley, Antarctica: evidence for a grounded ice sheet in the Ross Sea at the last glacial maximum. Geografiska Annaler, 82A, 305–336.Google Scholar
Hall, B.L., Denton, G.H. & Hendy, C.H. 2000. Evidence from Taylor Valley for a grounded ice sheet in the Ross Sea, Antarctica. Geografiska Annaler, 82A, 275–303.Google Scholar
Hall, B.L., Denton, G.H. & Overturf, B. 2001. Glacial Lake Wright, a high-level Antarctic lake during the LGM and early Holocene. Antarctic Science, 13, 53–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, B.L., Denton, G.H., Overturf, B. & Hendy, C.H. 2002. Glacial Lake Victoria, a high-level Antarctic lake inferred from lacustrine deposits in Victoria Valley. Quaternary Science, 17, 697–706.Google Scholar
Hendy, C.H., Wilson, A.T., Popplewell, K.B. & House, D.A. 1977. Dating of geochemical events in Lake Bonney, Antarctica, and their relation to glacial and climate changes. New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics, 20, 1103–1122.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, W.B., Tyler, S.W., Wharton, R.A., McKnight, D.M. & Vaughn, B.H. 1998a. A Late Holocene desiccation of Lake Hoare and Lake Fryxell, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 10, 247–256.Google Scholar
Lyons, W.B., Welch, K.A. & Sharma, P. 1998b. Chlorine-36 in the waters of the McMurdo Dry Valley lakes, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica: revisited. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 62, 185–191.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, W.B., Welch, K.A., Carey, A.E., Doran, P.T., Wall, D.H., Virginia, R.A., Fountain, A.G., Csatho, B.M. & Tremper, C.M. 2005. Groundwater seeps in Taylor Valley Antarctica: an example of a subsurface melt event. Annals of Glaciology, 40, 200–206.Google Scholar
Nylen, T.H., Fountain, A.G. & Doran, P.T. 2004. Climatology of katabatic winds in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, southern Victoria Land, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 109, art. no. D03114.Google Scholar
Peixoto, J.P. & Oort, A. 1992. The physics of climate. New York: Springer, 520 pp.Google Scholar
Poreda, R.J., Hunt, A., Lyons, W.B. & Welch, K.A. 2004. The helium isotopic chemistry of Lake Bonney, Taylor Valley, Antarctica: timing of Late Holocene climate change in Antarctica. Aquatic Geochemistry, 10, 353–371.Google Scholar
Steig, E.J., Morse, D.L., Waddington, E.D., Stuiver, M., Grootes, P.M., Mayewski, P.A., Twickler, M.S. & Whitlow, S.I. 2000. Wisconsinan and Holocene climate history from an ice core at Taylor Dome, western Ross Embayment, Antarctica. Geografiska Annaler, 82A, 213–235.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M., Denton, G.H., Hughes, T.J. & Fastook, J.L. 1981. History of the Marine Ice Sheet in West Antarctica during the last glaciation: a working hypothesis. In Denton, G.H. & Hughes, T.J., eds. The last great ice sheets. New York: John Wiley, 319–369.Google Scholar