Short-Term Meteorological and Environmental Signals Recorded in a Firn Core from a High-Accumulation Site on Plateau Laclavere, Antarctic Peninsula

Geosciences

Johannes Freitag¹  Hanno Meyer²  Kirstin Hoffmann-Abdi²  Thomas Opel²  Joseph R. McConnell³  Francisco Fernandoy⁴  Christoph Schneider⁵ 

[1] Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Am Alten Hafen 26, 27568 Bremerhaven, Germany;Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Research Unit Potsdam, Telegrafenberg A45, 14473 Potsdam, Germany;Division of Hydrologic Sciences, Desert Research Institute, 2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512, USA;Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Andrés Bello, Viña del Mar 2531015, Chile;Geographisches Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10099 Berlin, Germany;

关键词: Antarctic Peninsula;    firn cores;    stable water isotopes;    glacio-chemistry;    high accumulation;    surface melt;   

DOI  :  10.3390/geosciences11100428

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

High-accumulation sites are crucial for understanding the patterns and mechanisms of climate and environmental change in Antarctica since they allow gaining high-resolution proxy records from firn and ice. Here, we present new glacio- and isotope-geochemical data at sub-annual resolution from a firn core retrieved from an ice cap on Plateau Laclavere (LCL), northern Antarctic Peninsula, covering the period 2012–2015. The signals of two volcanic eruptions and two forest fire events in South America could be identified in the non-sea-salt sulphur and black carbon records, respectively. Mean annual snow accumulation on LCL amounts to 2500 kg m⁻² a⁻¹ and exhibits low inter-annual variability. Time series of δ¹⁸O, δD and d excess show no seasonal cyclicity, which may result from (1) a reduced annual temperature amplitude due to the maritime climate and (2) post-depositional processes. The firn core stratigraphy indicates strong surface melt on LCL during austral summers 2013 and 2015, likely related to large-scale warm-air advection from lower latitudes and temporal variations in sea ice extent in the Bellingshausen-Amundsen Sea. The LCL ice cap is a highly valuable natural archive since it captures regional meteorological and environmental signals as well as their connection to the South American continent.

【 授权许可】

Unknown