Jemma L. Wadham

Ice sheets as a significant source of highly reactive nanoparticulate iron to the oceans

The Greenland and Antarctic Ice Sheets cover ~\n10% of global land surface, but are rarely considered as active components of the global iron cycle. The ocean waters around both ice sheets harbour highly productive coastal ecosystems, many of which are iron limited. Measurements of iron concentrations in subglacial runoff from a large Greenland Ice Sheet catchment reveal the potential for globally significant export of labile iron fractions to the near-coastal euphotic zone. We estimate that the flux of bioavailable iron associated with glacial runoff is 0.40–2.54 Tg per year in Greenland and 0.06–0.17 Tg per year in Antarctica. Iron fluxes are dominated by a highly reactive and potentially bioavailable nanoparticulate suspended sediment fraction, similar to that identified in Antarctic icebergs. Estimates of labile iron fluxes in meltwater are comparable with aeolian dust fluxes to the oceans surrounding Greenland and Antarctica, and are similarly expected to increase in a warming climate with enhanced melting.

Photophysiology and albedo-changing potential of the ice algal community on the surface of the Greenland ice sheet

Darkening of parts of the Greenland ice sheet surface during the summer months leads to reduced albedo and increased melting. Here we show that heavily pigmented, actively photosynthesising microalgae and cyanobacteria are present on the bare ice. We demonstrate the widespread abundance of green algae in the Zygnematophyceae on the ice sheet surface in Southwest Greenland. Photophysiological measurements (variable chlorophyll fluorescence) indicate that the ice algae likely use screening mechanisms to downregulate photosynthesis when exposed to high intensities of visible and ultraviolet radiation, rather than non-photochemical quenching or cell movement. Using imaging microspectrophotometry, we demonstrate that intact cells and filaments absorb light with characteristic spectral profiles across ultraviolet and visible wavelengths, whereas inorganic dust particles typical for these areas display little absorption. Our results indicate that the phototrophic community growing directly on the bare ice, through their photophysiology, most likely have an important role in changing albedo, and subsequently may impact melt rates on the ice sheet.

Potential methane reservoirs beneath Antarctica

Once thought to be devoid of life, the ice-covered parts of Antarctica are now known to be a reservoir of metabolically active microbial cells and organic carbon. The potential for methanogenic archaea to support the degradation of organic carbon to methane beneath the ice, however, has not yet been evaluated. Large sedimentary basins containing marine sequences up to 14 kilometres thick and an estimated 21,000 petagrams (1 Pg equals 1015 g) of organic carbon are buried beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheet. No data exist for rates of methanogenesis in sub-Antarctic marine sediments. Here we present experimental data from other subglacial environments that demonstrate the potential for overridden organic matter beneath glacial systems to produce methane. We also numerically simulate the accumulation of methane in Antarctic sedimentary basins using an established one-dimensional hydrate model and show that pressure/temperature conditions favour methane hydrate formation down to sediment depths of about 300 metres in West Antarctica and 700 metres in East Antarctica. Our results demonstrate the potential for methane hydrate accumulation in Antarctic sedimentary basins, where the total inventory depends on rates of organic carbon degradation and conditions at the ice-sheet bed. We calculate that the sub-Antarctic hydrate inventory could be of the same order of magnitude as that of recent estimates made for Arctic permafrost. Our findings suggest that the Antarctic Ice Sheet may be a neglected but important component of the global methane budget, with the potential to act as a positive feedback on climate warming during ice-sheet wastage.

Biogeochemical weathering under ice: Size matters

[1] The basal regions of continental ice sheets are gaps in our current understanding of the Earth’s biosphere and biogeochemical cycles. We draw on existing and new chemical data sets for subglacial meltwaters to provide the first comprehensive assessment of sub‐ice sheet biogeochemical weathering. We show that size of the ice mass is a critical control on the balance of chemical weathering processes and that microbial activity is ubiquitous in driving dissolution. Carbonate dissolution fueled by sulfide oxidation and microbial CO2 dominate beneath small valley glaciers. Prolonged meltwater residence times and greater isolation characteristic of ice sheets lead to the development of anoxia and enhanced silicate dissolution due to calcite saturation. We show that sub‐ice sheet environments are highly geochemically reactive and should be considered in regional and global solute budgets. For example, calculated solute fluxes from Antarctica (72–130 t yr −1 ) are the same order of magnitude as those from some of the world’s largest rivers and rates of chemical weathering (10–17 t km −2 yr −1 ) are high for the annual specific discharge (2.3–4.1 × 10 −3 m). Our model of chemical weathering dynamics provides important information on subglacial biodiversity and global biogeochemical cycles and may be used to design strategies for the first sampling of Antarctic Subglacial Lakes and other sub‐ice sheet environments for the next decade.

Geochemical Weathering in Glacial and Proglacial Environments

Chemical weathering in glacial environments is a hot topic because physical and microbially mediated processes help produce bioavailable nutrients, including P and Fe, that can be readily used by organisms in downstream environments. Additionally, glacial processes provide rock-derived energy sources and nutrients to subglacial aquatic environments that are colonized by microbes. Eh–pH changes across the spectrum of subglacial aquatic environments means that there is a diverse spectrum of aerobic and anaerobic habitats for microbes to colonize, and hence a diverse spectrum of microbes are found, and are likely to be found in future, beneath glaciers and ice sheets. Sulfide oxidation is a key reaction under smaller glaciers, and it is likely that sulfate reduction and methanogenesis are important reactions in soil, marine and lacustrine sediments overridden by ice sheets. This chapter summarizes the current literature on these topical issues.

The hydrochemistry of meltwaters draining a polythermal-based, high Arctic glacier, south Svalbard : I. The ablation season

Solute and runoff time-series at Finsterwalderbreen, Svalbard, provide evidence for considerable basal routing of water and the existence of at least two contrasting subglacial chemical weathering environments. The hydrochemistry of a subglacial upwelling provides evidence for a snowmelt-fed subglacial reservoir that dominates bulk runoff during recession flow. High concentrations of Cl− and crustal ions, high pCO2 and ratios of [*SO2−4/(*SO2−4+HCO−3)] close to 0·5 indicate the passage of snowmelt through a subglacial weathering environment characterized by high rock:water ratios, prolonged residence times and restricted access to the atmosphere. At higher discharges, bulk runoff becomes dominated by icemelt from the lower part of the glacier that is conveyed through a chemical weathering environment characterized by low rock:water ratios, short residence times and free contact with atmospheric gases. These observations suggest that icemelt is routed via a hydrological system composed of basal/ice-marginal, englacial and supraglacial components and is directed to the glacier margins by the ice surface slope. Upwelling water flows relatively independently of icemelt to the terminus via a subglacial drainage system, possibly constituting flow through a sediment layer. Cold basal ice at the terminus forces it to take a subterranean routing in its latter stages. The existence of spatially discrete flow paths conveying icemelt and subglacial snowmelt to the terminus may be the norm for polythermal-based glaciers on Svalbard. Proglacial mixing of these components to form the bulk meltwaters gives rise to hydrochemical trends that resemble those of warm-based glaciers. These hydrochemical characteristics of bulk runoff have not been documented on any other glacier on Svalbard to date and have significance for understanding interactions between thermal regime and glacier hydrology.

Nitrogen fixation on Arctic glaciers, Svalbard

Telling, J., Anesio, A. M., Tranter, M., Irvine-Fynn, T., Hodson, A., Butler, C., Wadham, J. (2011). Nitrogen fixation on Arctic glaciers, Svalbard. Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences, 116, Article Number: G03039.

Organic matter content and quality in supraglacial debris across the ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet

Abstract Quantifying the biogeochemical cycling of carbon in glacial ecosystems is of great significance for regional, and potentially global, carbon flow estimations. The concentration and quality of organic carbon (OC) is an important indicator of biogeochemical and physical processes that prevail in an ice-sheet ecosystem. Here we determine the content and quality of OC in debris from the surface of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) using microscopic, chromatographic, spectrophotometric and high-temperature combustion techniques. The total OC content in the debris increased with distance from the edge of the ice sheet, from virtually zero to >6% dry weight at 50 km inland, and there was a peak in the carbohydrate proportion and the microbial abundance at ∼6km inland. The highest (galactose + mannose)/(arabinose + xylose) ratios, indicating maximum autochthonous microbial production, were found at >10km inland. We propose that three key processes influence the carbon cycling on the GrIS: aeolian input of microbial inoculum and nutrients, in situ biological C transformation and the wash-away of supraglacial debris by meltwaters. We show that all these processes have significant spatial variability. While the total OC content of the debris on the ice sheet is probably controlled by the physical processes of wind transport and wash-away by meltwater, the microbial abundance and the quantity of the labile cell-contained OC within the debris is likely to be driven by the balance between the wash-away and the microbial productivity.

The Greenland Ice Sheet as a hot spot of phosphorus weathering and export in the Arctic

The contribution of ice sheets to the global biogeochemical cycle of phosphorus is largely unknown, due to the lack of field data. Here we present the first comprehensive study of phosphorus export from two Greenland Ice Sheet glaciers. Our results indicate that the ice sheet is a hot spot of phosphorus export in the Arctic. Soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) concentrations, up to 0.35 µM, are similar to those observed in Arctic rivers. Yields of SRP are among the highest in the literature, with denudation rates of 17–27 kg P km−2 yr−1. Particulate phases, as with nonglaciated catchments, dominate phosphorus export (>97% of total phosphorus flux). The labile particulate fraction differs between the two glaciers studied, with significantly higher yields found at the larger glacier (57.3 versus 8.3 kg P km−2 yr−1). Total phosphorus yields are an order of magnitude higher than riverine values reported in the literature. We estimate that the ice sheet contributes ~15% of total bioavailable phosphorus input to the Arctic oceans (~11 Gg yr−1) and dominates total phosphorus input (408 Gg yr−1), which is more than 3 times that estimated from Arctic rivers (126 Gg yr−1). We predict that these fluxes will rise with increasing ice sheet freshwater discharge in the future.

Direct effect of ice sheets on terrestrial bicarbonate, sulphate and base cation fluxes during the last glacial cycle: minimal impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations

Chemical erosion in glacial environments is normally a consequence of chemical weathering reactions dominated by sulphide oxidation linked to carbonate dissolution and the carbonation of carbonates and silicates. Solute fluxes from small valley glaciers are usually a linear function of discharge. Representative glacial solute concentrations can be derived from the linear association of solute flux with discharge. These representative glacial concentrations of the major ions are f25% of those in global river water. A 3-D thermomechanically coupled model of the growth and decay of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets was used to simulate glacial runoff at 100-year time steps during the last glacial cycle (130 ka to the present). The glacially derived fluxes of major cations, anions and Si over the glaciation were estimated from the product of the glacial runoff and the representative glacial concentration. A second estimate was obtained from the product of the glacial runoff and a realistic upper limit for glacial solute concentrations derived from theoretical considerations. The fluxes over the last glacial cycle are usually less than a few percent of current riverine solute fluxes to the oceans. The glacial fluxes were used to provide input to an oceanic carbon cycling model that also calculates changes in atmospheric CO2. The potential change in atmospheric CO2 concentrations over the last glacial cycle that arise from perturbations in glacial solute fluxes are insignificant, being < 1 ppm. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.