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1 Proceedings: Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference 2020
1
Proceedings: Students in Polar and Alpine
Research Conference 2020
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Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference 2020 - preface
Dear colleagues from within the polar and alpine research community,
Today we are once again honoured to host the international Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference,
already in its sixth year. The conference has been held despite the ongoing unfavourable circumstances of the
global CoViD-19 pandemic, which has forced us to move largely to online streaming. Nonetheless, we were
able to meet also in person, albeit in smaller numbers than the previous years, on the premises of the
Department of Geography, Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia. The topics covered include the fields of
both geosciences and biosciences, as well as interdisciplinary studies. We believe this conference has given
us a glimpse of hope that we will soon be able to return to our researches and field works in those unforgiving,
yet beautiful environments of the polar and alpine regions.
A total of 40 contributions were presented during the two days of the conference, including 4 keynote lectures,
30 oral presentations and 10 posters. We would like to thank all the participants, including the young scientists
who have presented their interesting research topics and the keynote speakers for sharing their knowledge and
experience with us. We are happy to welcome old friends as well as colleagues participating for the first time,
yet who will hopefully come again in next years.
There is a website dedicated to Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference, which you can find on
https://sparc-brno.webnode.cz. We sincerely hope that we will meet again in Brno in the near future.
Brno, 22 September 2020
Jan Kavan, Matěj Roman
Proceedings
Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference 2020
Place Date
Brno (Czech Republic) 21–22 September 2020
Editors:
Jan Kavan, Matěj Roman,
Filip Hrbáček
Acknowledgements:
The organizing committee of Students in Polar and Alpine Research Conference 2020 gratefully thanks the
Department of Geography, Masaryk University for providing us with the conference room and related
equipment. The conference is organized with financial support from EEA grants via the project „Cool
Science – training course in polar research“. The funding support for the conference was provided by the
project MUNI/A/1356/2019, the projectS LM2015078 and CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001708 funded by the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. and the Permafrost Young Researcher
Network (PYRN). We acknowledge the keynote speakers who had the will to contribute to the conference.
© 2020 Masarykova univerzita
ISBN 978-80-210-9660-8
Published by Masaryk University, Žerotínovo náměstí, 617/9, 601 77 Brno, Czech Republic, 1st edition.
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Contents:
Keynote section
Atmospheric dust in polar environments
Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova, O. Arnalds, O. Meinander, J.-B. Renard, B. Moroni, J. Kavan 4
Changes in snowpack and snowmelt contribution to seasonal runoff in mountain catchments
Michal Jeníček 5
The effects of changing environment on human activities in the Arctic: Drivers and challenges
Barbora Padrtová 7
Primary succession of vegetation and initial soil development in the Arctic and Alpine ecosystems
Paulina Wietrzyk-Pełka 8
Participant section
Peculiarities of medical care in Antarctic crews with a special respect to dentistry
Julie Bartáková 9
Seasonal changes of spectral reflectance indices in different types of Antarctic vegetation
Michaela Bednaříková, Miloš Barták 11
Assessment of the recession rate of Gangotri and its tributary glacier, Garhwal Himalaya (India)
through kinematic GPS survey and satellite data
Harish Bisht, Bahadur Singh Kotlia, Kireet Kumar, Saurabh Kumar Sah, Manmohan Kukreti 12
Diurnal dynamics of the CO2 fluxes from the soil surface of typical ecosystems in north taiga
and south tundra of Western Siberia
Anna Bobrik 13
Issues on diversity of soil diatoms in the Antarctic Realm
Tereza Cahová, Barbora Chattová 14
Estimating the volume of glaciers in the Russian Altai region using different methods
Wai Yin Cheung, Dmitry Ganyushkin 16
Spectral ultraviolet radiation measurements at Marambio Base, Antarctic Peninsula
Klára Čížková, Kamil Láska, Ladislav Metelka, Martin Staněk 17
Deglaciation of the central sector of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in northern British Columbia
Helen E. Dulfer, Martin Margold 19
Preliminary palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the sedimentary infill of a tectonic valley:
the Jinačovice exposure (Brno-venkov district) case study
Jakub Holuša 20
EUNIS habitats at the territory of the East European tundra (in the example of key area
on the right bank of the Kuya River)
Kseniia Ivanova 22
The registration of lichen monitoring patch photograps into time series
Snæbjörn Helgi Arnarsson Jack 24
Preliminary Results of Modelling on James Ross Island (Antarctica)
Klára Jeklová, Kamil Láska, Michael Matějka, Joachim Reuder 25
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How can rain-on-snow events contribute to the stream runoff
Roman Juras, Johanna R. Blöcher, Michal Jenicek, Yannis Markonis, Ondrej Ledvinka 26
High Latitude Dust transport altitude pattern revealed from deposition on snow, Svalbard
Jan Kavan, Kamil Láska, Adam Nawrot, Tomasz Wawrzyniak 28
Visual exploration of data acquired at the Mendel Polar Station in Antarctica
Matěj Lang, Sergej Stoppel, Jan Byška, Bára Kozlíková 29
Modelling of surface energy balance of James Ross Island glaciers, Antarctic Peninsula region
Michael Matějka, Kamil Láska 30
Arctic Justice
Daria Mishina 31
Resistance of Antarctic moss Sanionia uncinata to photoinhibition:
analysis oflimitationof photosynthetic processes
Alla Orekhova, Miloš Barták, Josef Hájek 32
The underestimated informative value of archaeozoological remains in Svalbard
Franziska Paul 34
Variability of the Arctic active layer
Claudia Pérez Ramos 35
Water column properties of Kongressvatn, Kapp Linné, SW Svalbard
Nil Rodes, Michael Retelle, Alan Werner, Steven Roof 37
Dating the sedimentary record from Monolith Lake, James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula
Matěj Roman, David Sanderson, Alan Creswell, Daniel Nývlt 38
Comparative features of ice fluctuations in the area of the Svalbard and Franz Josef Land archipelagos
B.S. Shapkin, A.V. Rubchenia, B.V. Ivanov, A.D. Revina, V.M. Smolyanitskiy 39
Arctic permafrost is a promising ecosystem for rhodopsin-like proteins gene search
Artemiy Y. Sukhanov, Natalya I. Eromasova, Elena V. Spirina, Elizaveta M. Rivkina 41
The current state of the glaciers in the Caucasus Mountains
Levan Tielidze 42
The Ahuriri Glacier during the Last Glacial Maximum, Southern Alps, New Zealand
Levan Tielidze, Shaun Eaves, Kevin Norton, Andrew Mackintosh 43
High latitude dust in Iceland
Alexandr Vítek, Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserová, Olafur Arnalds, Brian Barr, Nathalie Burdová 44
High Arctic small catchments on Wedel Jarlsberg Land (SW Spitsbergen) ─ connections and differences
Aleksandra Wołoszyn 45
Featured remote sensing methods of investigation in polar landscape evolution
— solution for lockdown?
Aleksandra Wołoszyn, Iwo Wieczorek 46
Pollen inferred Holocene vegetation and climate variability on sub-Antarctic South Georgia
Maaike Zwier, Anne E. Bjune, Willem G. M. van der Bilt 47
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Atmospheric dust in polar environments
Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserova1,2*, Olafur Arnalds1, Outi Meinander3, Jean-Baptiste Renard4, Bea Moroni5,
Jan Kavan6
1Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland, Hvanneyri, Borgarnes,
IS 311, Iceland. 2Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, 165 21 Czech Republic.
3Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland. 4LPC2E-CNRS / Université d’Orléans, Orléans, France
5Università di Perugia, Italy 6Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
The Arctic and Antarctic regions include large
areas of High Latitude Dust (HLD) sources, from
where dust is transported long distances. The first
estimates are that all high latitude dust sources
cover > 500,000 km2 and contribute to at least 5 %
of global dust budget. Iceland is the largest Arctic
as well as European desert with high dust event
frequency (~135 dust days annually). Icelandic
volcanic dust can be transported distances > 1700
km towards the Arctic and deposited on snow, ice
and sea ice. Atmospheric-cryospheric interaction
of dust will be introduced. It is estimated that about
7% of Icelandic dust can reach the high Arctic
(N>80°). Vertical profiles of Icelandic dust storms
showed the presence of dust in altitudes of several
kilometres. Icelandic dust is also transported
towards the Europe with volcanic dust fingerprints
found in Balkan Peninsula (Belgrade).
The main HLD sources are introduced with focus
on Iceland and Antarctica. Iceland is the largest
Arctic as well as European desert with 44,000 km2
of desert areas. This represents that > 40% of
Iceland is poorly vegetated and with high erosion
rates, not including the 11% extent of the glaciers.
These areas used to be, however, vegetated while
forests covered at least 25% of the country about
800 years ago. Woodlands were reduced due to
medieval agricultural methods to almost total
elimination about 100 years ago. Cold climate and
massive erosion caused a collapse turning
vegetated ecosystem into desert. Today Iceland
experiences >130 dust event days annually (based
on the weather report analyses 1949-2011)
affecting the area of > 500,000 km2.
Dust measurements in the Antarctic Peninsula
showed that the air is polluted by local dust
sources, as well as due to long-range transport from
Patagonia. The PM10 concentrations in Antarctica
were higher than those in natural areas of the
Northern Europe. Newly identified HLD sources as
well as the first evidence that Icelandic volcanic
dust reaching the High Arctic, Svalbard Islands,
will be presented. HLD contributes to Arctic and
Antarctic air pollution and has the potential to
influence ice nucleation in mixed-phase clouds and
Arctic amplification.
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Changes in snowpack and snowmelt contribution to seasonal runoff in mountain catchments
Michal Jeníček
Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Prague,
Czechia
The streamflow seasonality in mountain
catchments is largely influenced by snow.
However, a shift from snowfall to rain is expected
in the future. Consequently, a decrease in snow
storage and earlier snowmelt is predicted, which
will cause changes in spring and summer runoff
and thus water availability. Therefore, the
objectives of our research is to quantify 1) how
inter-annual variations in snow storages affect
spring and summer runoff, 2) the importance of
snowmelt in generating runoff compared to
rainfall, and 3) how the changes in snow storages
will affect streamflow seasonality and extremes in
the future. The snow storage, groundwater recharge
and streamflow were simulated for 59 mountain
catchments in Czechia and 14 catchments in
Switzerland for the past 35 years using a bucket-
type catchment model. The model performance
Figure 1. (top left) Mean SWEmax, (top right) mean snowfall fraction, (bottom left) DOY of SWEmax, and (bottom
right) DOY of melt-out at different elevations for the reference period and three future periods. Lines express real
values, bars express relative differences from the reference period. From Jenicek et al. (2018).
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was evaluated against observed daily runoff and
snow water equivalent. The impact of future
climate changes on streamflow in Czech
catchments was assessed using dynamically
downscaled climate simulations from several
general circulation models (GCMs) in combination
with several regional climate models (RCMs). The
analysis was based on three Representative
Concentration Pathways (RCP 2.6, 4.5 and 8.5).
For Swiss catchments, downscaled scenarios were
available as daily estimates of changes in air
temperature and precipitation relative to the
reference period 1980-2009 for three future periods
until 2100 and the A1B emission scenario.
The results from Czech catchments showed that
17-42% (26% on average) of the total runoff in last
35 years originates as snowmelt, despite the fact
that only 12-37% (20% on average) of the
precipitation falls as snow. This means that snow is
more effective in generating catchment runoff
compared to liquid precipitation. This was
documented by modelling experiments which
showed that total annual runoff and groundwater
recharge decreases in the case of a precipitation
shift from snow to rain. For most of the Czech
catchments, the lowest summer baseflow was
reached in years with both relatively low summer
precipitation and snow storage. This showed that
summer low flows are not only a function of low
precipitation and high evapotranspiration, but they
are significantly affected by previous winter
snowpack. The simulations of the future snow
storages for Swiss catchments showed the largest
relative decrease in annual maximum SWE for
elevations below 2200 m a.s.l. (60-75% for the
period 2070-2099) and the snowmelt season shift
by up to four weeks earlier. Similar decrease was
simulated also for Czech catchments, although at
generally lower elevations. Additionally, large
decrease in snowfall fraction (a ratio of snowfall
water equivalent to total annual precipitation) was
simulated. The above future changes in snow
storages will affect future runoff. For Swiss
catchments, the relative decrease in spring and
summer minimum runoff that was caused by the
relative decrease in maximum SWE (i.e.,
elasticity), reached 40-90% in most of catchments
for the reference period and decreased for the
future periods. This decreasing elasticity indicated
that the effect of snow on summer low flows is
reduced in the future. Simulations of future runoff
suggested that the fraction of snowmelt runoff in
summer will decrease by more than 50% at the
highest elevations in the future and almost
disappear at the lowest elevations. The results
achieved at both study domains might have large
implications on water availability as well as river
ecology during summer period.
References:
Jenicek, M., Seibert, J., Staudinger, M. (2018).
Modeling of Future Changes in Seasonal
Snowpack and Impacts on Summer Low Flows in
Alpine Catchments. Water Resources Research 54,
538–556. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017WR021648
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The effects of changing environment on human activities in the Arctic: Drivers and challenges
Barbora Padrtová
Department of International Relations and European Studies, Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University,
Joštova 10, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Climate change brings several layers of challenges
to the Arctic. On the one hand, we can observe
increased human activities that create potential for
economic development – especially in mining, oil
and gas industry, shipping, fisheries and tourism.
On the other hand, these economic benefits pose a
risk to the environment, local populations and
traditional livelihood of the Indigenous peoples.
The aim of the presentation is to briefly introduce
the new interdisciplinary project (2020-2022), that
investigates the impact of climate change and
human activities on the natural environment in the
Arctic. The team is composed of eight scientists
with different specialization from three faculties of
the Masaryk University – Faculty of Social Studies,
Faculty of Science, and Faculty of Law. The
research focuses on both the challenges and risk
assessment in terrestrial ecosystems. The team
investigates the relation of natural environment
changes to the human-to-environment interaction,
as well as the consequences for the geopolitical,
legal and security developments in the Arctic
region. Based on the gained findings, the team will
develop risks analysis and recommendations for
mitigating the impact of environmental changes on
the natural environment and population in the
specific Arctic territories. The research directly
contributes to encouraging interdisciplinary
innovative approach with high added value and
international impact. Innovative aspects of the
project lie in the interdisciplinary character of the
Arctic research across different specializations –
natural science, social science and law, which has
not been combined and investigated yet.
Additionally, the project is unique due to its
specific science communication and dissemination
of research findings, which aims at four levels of
audiences – (i) academic community, (ii)
policymakers, (iii) general public, and (iv)
students. In addition, the research project supports
the inclusion of female scientists.
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Primary succession of vegetation and initial soil development in the Arctic
and Alpine ecosystems
Paulina Wietrzyk-Pełka
Professor Z. Czeppe Department of Polar Research and Documentation, Institute of Botany, Jagiellonian
University, Gronostajowa 3, 30-387 Kraków, Poland
In contrast to secondary succession, primary
succession occurs only on newly exposed lands.
Thus, there are not many places across the world
where the colonisation of barren areas might be
observed and studied. However, such conditions
are fulfilled in the glacier forelands. The on-going
rapid melting of glaciers gives a unique
opportunity to investigate primary succession of
vegetation as well as the process of soil
development which is inseparably linked to species
colonisation. In Arctic and alpine regions, plant
communities are dominated by cryptogamic
species. These are typically pioneering spore-
bearing organisms, such as algae, bacteria,
cyanobacteria, microfungi, lichens, and
bryophytes. On the soil surface, they often form
complex extracellular matrix together with soil
particles. These structures are called biological soil
crusts. They are especially common in the foreland
areas where harsh habitat conditions limit the
occurrence of vascular plants. However, still little
is known about colonisation of the barren substrate
of glacier forelands by cryptogamic species as well
as about their impact on initial soil formation.
Research showed the high diversity of cryptogams
in the forelands as well as the important role of
biological soil crusts in the process of soil
development. Both primary succession and soil
development turned out to be not linear in their
character. In addition, they depended on various
biotic and abiotic factors. Moreover, many
additional sources of life were recently identified
including endogenous glacier habitats and
atmospheric deposition. Previously, the forelands
were often considered as ecosystems characterised
by relatively simple relations between their biotic
and abiotic elements. However, current studies
show complex network of interactions between
species invisible to the naked eye as well as their
important roles in the processes shaping initial
ecosystems of glacier forelands.
Acknowledgements: The field research leading to
these results has received funding from the
European Union’s Horizon 2020 project
INTERACT, grant No. 730938. The laboratory
analyses were financed by National Science Centre
in Poland within Preludium project, grant No.
2017/27/N/ST10/00862. The work of Paulina
Wietrzyk-Pełka was supported by Etiuda project of
the National Science Centre in Poland, grant No.
2019/32/T/ST10/00182.
Figure 1. A view on Rabots Glacier (N Sweden) and its foreland.
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Peculiarities of medical care in Antarctic crews with a special respect to dentistry
Julie Bartáková1,2
1Stomatological Clinic, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University and St. Anne’s University Hospital in
Brno, Pekařská 53, 656 91, Brno, Czech Republic
2Masaryk University, Faculty of Science, RECETOX, Molecular Metabolism and Chronic Diseases Group,
Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
To carry out medical care, research and
investigations is essential in Antarctica, both in
overwintering and short-term (austral summer)
crews. This study aims to evaluate disease and
injury trends among the members of Czech
expeditions (1/2-month-long) with a special
respect to dental problems. Long-term medical data
(Ikeda et al. 2019, 50 y) showed that majority of
diseases belongs to 1) surgery and orthopedics, 2)
internal problems, and 3) dentistry. In the study,
dental problems were the third most frequent,
reaching 12% cases. Therefore, comprehensive
information and data base on dental care in
Antarctica is needed so that proper dental care
could be provided during expeditions. Risks of
dental problems in Antarctica are similar to those
in high mountains (Küpper et al. 2014), however
long-term stays of crews in Antarctica bring higher
probability and frequency of dental problem.
Classification of dental problems is sometimes
problematic in Antarctica because of missing
information due to unsufficient examination
protocol. However, Zaitsu et Kawaguchi (2017)
has identified six major dental problems, such as
1) Abscess, 2) Avulsion/Tooth Loss, 3) Caries,
4) Crown Replacement, 5) Exposed Pulp/Pulpitis,
and 6) Filling Replacement. For the Czech
Antarctic Program, available data from the period
of 2007-2018 were gathered and dental cases
description done. Since the number of crew people
was rather low, the incidence of the dental cases
was not calculated. However, treatment is reported
for major cases.
Number of crew members taking part in the Czech
Antarctic expeditions to James Ross Island varied
between 12 to 22 in particular austral summer
seasons. In the period of 2007-2018, the following
cases are reported.
Description: The first case was fracture of the
upper central right incisor distaly. Temporary filing
as a first aid did not hold, because there was not
enough retentiton. First aid was brushing the sharp
end with an abrasive strip. The second case was
loosing of permanent filling from the first lower
right mollar. Pacient felt a pain. After closing the
cavity with temporary filling, the tooths was
without any pain, and other clinical symptoms. The
third case were two man reporting nonspecific
pain. The first man felt a pain in the upper jaw on
the right side. The second man felt a pain in lower
jaw on the left side. The dentist made a percussion
test, which was negative. After one day, the pain
went away. The fourth case was loosing of upper
central left incisor abutment and crown from dental
implant. There was no first aid, because the
instruments for fixing abutments to the implant
were not a part of first aid equipment available at
the station.
In Antarcic crews, similarly to medical care in
expeditions and stay in extreme environments
(Mellor et al. 2015), the following aspects must be
pointed out: It is recommended to provide guidance
and expedition medics to ensure the best possible
dental care. Additionally, system of medical
planning is suggested to enable expedition
leaders/doctors to identify the potential medical
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risks and their mitigation. Last but not least,
specific topics in dental research are encouraged
for Antarctic crews recently, such as e.g.
biodiversity of human oral microbiota (Bushan et
al., 2019).
Information on medical care, frequency of diseases
and applied treatment are indispensable to the
advancement of medical system and research in
Antarctica. For dentistry, a pre-expedition dental
training program for the attending doctor is
suggested.
References
Bushan, B. et al. (2019). Journal of Oral
Microbiology 11, 1581513.
Ikeda, A. et al. (2019). International Journal of
Circumpolar Health 78, 1611327.
Küpper, T. et al. (2014). Hight Altitude Medicine
and Biology 15, 39-45.
Mellor, A. et al. (2015). Extreme Physiology and
Medicine 4, 1-10.
Zaitsu, T., Kawaguchi, Y. (2017). The
International Journal of Oral Health 13, 13-16.
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Seasonal changes of spectral reflectance indices in different types of Antarctic vegetation
Michaela Bednaříková*, Miloš Barták
Department of Experimental Biology of Plants, Institute of Experimental Biology, Masaryk University,
Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic
It is very difficult for any photosynthesizing
organism to survive and grow successfully in the
Antarctic terrestrial environments. Even during the
summer period these organisms are exposed to low
temperature, strong wind, high irradiance and other
stressors. Among them, limited liquid water
availability plays important role, so that Antarctic
vegetation pass through several dehydration and
rehydration events during austral summer season.
All the above-specified environmental stressors
may influence the photosynthetic performance as
well as spectral reflectance properties of
photosynthesizing organisms. Spectral reflectance
is, therefore, a very useful method for analysis of
different types of vegetation both by ground and
remote sensing approach. The most used spectral
reflectance indices are the normalized differential
vegetation index (NDVI), associated with the
chlorophyll content and dehydration in lichens, and
photochemical reflectance index (PRI), related to
the xanthophyll cycle conversion and changes in
PSII functioning.
In our study, we repeatedly (in two consecutive
austral summers) measured NDVI and PRI index
and spectral reflectance curves in three types of
Antarctic vegetation: (1) moss Bryum sp., (2)
cyanobacterium Nostoc sp. and (3) bare soil. The
studied vegetation types were on the long-term
research plot close to the Czech Antarctic Station
Johann Gregor Mendel (the James Ross Island,
Antarctica). The measurements were done
repeatedly in 3-4 days interval in 2018 and 2019.
Afterwards, we compared seasonal changes in
NDVI and PRI for particular vegetation types. In
2018, spectral reflectance curves (380-800 nm)
were also measured, and other reflectance indices
were analysed. The most sensitive indices to
hydration/dehydration were SR (simple ratio
index), OSAVI (optimized soil-adjusted vegetation
index), G (greenness index), TCARI (transformed
chlorophyll absorption in reflectance index), and
SIPI (structure intensive pigment index). Apparent
differences were found between Bryum, Nostoc
and bare soil measured data. The highest values
were measured in Bryum, the lowest values in bare
soil. We also found hydration-dependent changes
in the parameters within the season (Jan – Feb) and
related them to actual water availability for
particular vegetation type.
Acknowledgement:
The authors are grateful to CzechPolar-2
infrastructure (LM2015078) that enabled sample
collection and handling. Experimental part of work
has been done in the EEL laboratory (CzechPolar
project infrastructure) and supported by the
ECOPOLARIS project (CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_
013/0001708).
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Assessment of the recession rate of Gangotri and its tributary glacier, Garhwal Himalaya
(India) through kinematic GPS survey and satellite data
Harish Bisht1*, Bahadur Singh Kotlia1, Kireet Kumar2, Saurabh Kumar Sah2, Manmohan Kukreti1
1Centre of Advanced Study, Department of Geology, Kumaun University Nainital, 263002, India. 2G. B. Pant National Institute of Himalayan Environment and Sustainable Development Kosi-Katarmal,
Almora, 263643, Uttarakhand, India.
In order to reconstruct past retreating rates, total
area loss, volume change and shift in snout position
were measured through multi-temporal satellite
data from 1989 to 2016 and kinematic GPS survey
from 2015 to 2016. The results obtained from
satellite data indicate that in the last 27 years
Chaturangi glacier snout has retreated 1172.57
±38.3 m (average 45.07 ± 4.31 m/year) with a total
area and volume loss of 0.626 ± 0.001 sq. km and
0.139 km3 respectively. The field measurements
through differential global positioning system
survey revealed that the annual retreating rate was
22.84 ±0.05 m/ year. The large variations in results
derived from both the methods are probably
because of higher difference in their accuracy.
Snout monitoring of the Gangotri glacier during the
ablation season (May to September) in years 2005
and 2015 reveals that the retreating rate has been
comparatively more declined than that shown by
the earlier studies. The GPS dataset show that the
average recession rate is 10.26±0.05 m/year. In
order to determine the possible causes of decreased
retreating rate, a relationship between debris
thickness and melt rate was also established by
using ablation stakes. The present study concludes
that remote sensing method is suitable for large
area and long term study, while kinematic GPS is
more appropriate for the annual monitoring of
retreating rate of glacier snout. The present study
also emphasizes on mapping of all the tributary
glaciers in order to assess the overall changes in the
main glacier system and its health.
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Diurnal dynamics of the CO2 fluxes from the soil surface of typical ecosystems in north taiga
and south tundra of Western Siberia
Anna Bobrik
Department of Soil Science, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-12 Leninskie Gory, 119991, Moscow,
Russia
Understanding of CO2 fluxes from soils is critical
to estimating future atmospheric CO2
concentrations and global temperatures in Arctic
region, because global warming may trigger
positive feedback between the atmosphere and
terrestrial ecosystems. The aim of our study was to
assess the diurnal dynamics of the CO2 fluxes from
the soil surface of the typical ecosystems in north
taiga and south tundra of Arctic Western Siberia
(Russia).
The north taiga research site (Nadym) is located in
discontinuous permafrost zone (N65º18', E72º52').
Soil CO2 fluxes were measured continuously from
13 to 17 August, 2017 as well as soil temperature
and moisture on the different depths. The flat-
topped peatland and forest ecosystems are
statistically significantly different in CO2 fluxes.
The daily average soil CO2 flux rate ranged from
93 ± 27 mgСО2/m2hr (peatland) to 373 ± 39
mgСО2/m2hr (forest). CO2 fluxes from forest
ecosystem soils are in 3-6 times higher than the
values of this indicator for peat soils in the daytime
and 4-5 times higher at night. But all studied
ecosystems are characterized by the similar diurnal
dynamics of soil CO2 fluxes. Soil CO2 flux rates
usually peaked well after midday but before the
maximum temperature at 10 cm depth was
recorded. Generally, the lowest daily CO2 flux
occurred just before sunrise, as did the minimum
soil temperature at 10 cm depth. The average
values of CO2 fluxes from the soil of the peatland
and forest ecosystem do not differ significantly in
the daytime from 10 am to 6 pm and correspond to
the average daily value. Therefore, a wide range of
daytime is optimal for gas fluxes measurements.
The south tundra research site (Urengoy) is located
in continuous permafrost zone (N 67°48; E
76°69’). Soil CO2 fluxes were measured
continuously from 20 to 24 August, 2017 as well as
soil temperature and moisture on the different
depths. The typical tundra ecosystems are
characterized by a pronounced daily dynamics of
CO2 fluxes with the lowest values at night and the
highest in the daytime. Although soil temperature
is often used as the principal driving variable of soil
CO2 fluxes in carbon cycle models, the lack of
correlation between soil temperature and
associated gas fluxes in our study can be explained
by the narrow time frame of the measurements as
well as the increase in wind speed and increased
gas blowing from the soil surface. The results
provide detailed information that can be used to
parameterize ecosystem models.
14
Issues on diversity of soil diatoms in the Antarctic Realm
Tereza Cahová*, Barbora Chattová
Department of Botany & Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2, 602 00 Brno,
Czech Republic
Diatoms, unicellular microscopic algae with
unique siliceous shells, are well-known organisms
distributed all over the world. Since the beginning
of 18th century and their first observation, many
works dealing with their morphology, biology and
biogeography have been published. During past
decades, diatom assemblages in the Antarctic
Realm have gained attention. Studies of diatom
communities on the sub-Antarctic islands and
islands of the Maritime Antarctic Region brought
information on biogeographical patterns and
descriptions of new species and genera with
different levels of endemism, however most of
these studies were performed on samples of
freshwater and moss-inhabiting communities.
Research of soil diatom assemblages was so far
conducted on Île de la Possession (Îles Crozet; Van
de Vijver et al. 2002, Moravcová et al. 2010) and
Deception Island (South Shetland Islands; Fermani
et al. 2007).
Our story of soil diatoms begins with
diatomological research of two remote volcanic
islands of South Indian Ocean – Île Amsterdam and
Île Saint-Paul, in the sub-Antarctic Region of the
Antarctic Realm. First research of these islands was
conducted in 1999 and revealed diversified diatom
flora. Two more sampling campaigns followed.
Study of freshwater diatom assemblages (Chattová
et al. 2014) revealed 99 species and 123 species
was found in mosses (Chattová, unpublished
results). The third part of the study, research on soil
samples from various habitats from all over the
island, brought surprising results when 139 species,
divided into 5 clearly different groups according to
the species composition (Cahová, unpublished
results), was found. In total, 15 % of observed
species appears to be endemic to Île Amsterdam
and 14 % species have sub-Antarctic distribution.
Research conducted on neighbouring Île Saint-Paul
showed similar results. There are no permanent
waterbodies on Île Saint-Paul, nevertheless soil
diatom communities showed higher species
richness (53 species) against moss-inhabiting
diatom communities (41 species; Chattová,
unpublished results).
Moreover, the study of James Ross Island
(Maritime-Antarctic Region) is another case of
surprisingly rich soil diatom communities. The
research showed that the species richness of soil
samples exceeded the species richness of seepages,
streams and lichens (Chattová, unpublished
results). And there are samples from other islands
of the Maritime-Antarctic Region (Horseshoe
Island, Ardley Island, Galindez Island, Lagotellerie
Island) among currently analyzed data. Preliminary
results gained from these samples show quite high
species richness and variability of soil diatom
communities. However, further research is needed.
In the past, these researches led to the description
of number of new species and several other species
are still waiting for formal scientific description. In
all those studies, including unpublished soil
studies, biogeography of observed species was
partially revealed, showing species endemic to
each island, species endemic to a region or species
currently marked as cosmopolitan, but further
research on these species is necessary. And also,
15
according to mentioned studies, there could be a
trend of highly species-rich soil diatom
communities all over the Antarctic Realm,
supported with our data. Nevertheless, there is still
a lack of information on soil diatom communities
from all regions of the Antarctic Realm, especially
from the Continental Antarctic Region.
References:
Fermani, P., Mataloni, G. & Van de Vijver, B.
(2007). Soil microalgal communities on an
antarctic active volcano (Deception Island, South
Shetlands). Polar Biology 30: 1381-1393.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-007-0299-6
Chattová, B., Lebouvier, M. & Van de Vijver, B.
(2014). Freshwater diatom communities from Ile
Amsterdam (TAAF, Southern Indian Ocean).
Fottea 14: 101–119.
https://doi.org/10.5507/fot.2014.008
Moravcová, A., Beyens, L. & Van de Vijver, B.
(2010). Diatom communities in soils influenced by
the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans). Polar
Biology 33: 241–255.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00300-009-0700-8
Van de Vijver, B., Ledeganck, P. & Beyens, L.
(2002). Soil diatom communities from Ile de la
Possession (Crozet, Subantarctica). Polar Biology
25: 721–729.
16
Estimating the volume of glaciers in the Russian Altai region using different methods
Wai Yin Cheung*, Dmitry Ganyushkin
Saint-Petersburg State University, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Only a few studies on glacier mapping exist for
Russian Altai mountains, and systematic mapping
has begun recently. Consequently, there are limited
data regarding the current state of the glaciers, the
physical landscape, the climate, and the responses
of glaciers to climate change in this region. The
Altai region is situated at the climatic boundary
between the west Atlantic influence and the Pacific
influence from the east. It is also a transition zone
between deserts and steppe to the south and
boreal/taiga forest to the north. It can thus be
considered a region particularly sensitive to small-
scale climatic changes. This study will apply
regional glacier modeling data - Glaptop2, and
Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) field data in
Gora Mungun-Tayga glacier to estimate the
volume of glaciers and its correlations. The product
of ice thickness and subglacial topography
obtained will facilitate future studies of ice
dynamics and glacier isostatic adjustment in the
region. Besides, the results can offer valuable
information for projecting water resources and
glacier hazards as well as a better understanding of
arid glaciers on Earth or Mars.
17
Spectral ultraviolet radiation measurements at Marambio Base, Antarctic Peninsula
Klára Čížková1,2*, Kamil Láska2, Ladislav Metelka1, Martin Staněk1
1Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Solar and Ozone Department, Hradec Králové, Czech Republic 2Polar-Geo-Lab, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2,
602 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation plays an important
role in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, for
example by affecting the rate of photosynthesis or
the phytoplankton productivity. In higher
organisms like humans, UV radiation triggers the
vitamin D production, but excess exposure can
cause DNA damage potentially resulting in skin
cancer or eye diseases (Harm, 1980; Yu and Lee,
2017). The harmful UV radiation effects are
significantly reduced by stratospheric ozone, which
forms a natural protective layer. However, in
Antarctica, each spring the ecosystems are exposed
to a dramatic UV radiation intensity increase
caused by the development of ozone hole.
Although the ozonosphere seems to be recovering
(e.g., Solomon et al., 2016), UV radiation
monitoring continues to be an important research
task.
This study aims to assess spectral UV radiation
intensity in Antarctic Peninsula using the data
collected by the B199 Brewer spectrophotometer.
This instrument was installed at Marambio Base (S
64.233°, W 56.623°) in February 2010 and it was
in operation till January 2020, which provided a
time series of high-quality ozone and UV radiation
measurements from the Antarctic Peninsula region
(Čížková et al., 2019). The spectral UV radiation
measurements are available each year from August
to April and the wavelength interval between 290
and 363 nm is separated into 147 bands, each 0.5
nm wide. From the 44 535 individual
measurements, a climatology has been assembled,
and the effects of solar zenith angle, total ozone
column, and cloudiness have been studied.
The median radiation intensities increased rapidly
to about 330 nm, in longer wavelengths the
increase was slower. The highest median radiation
intensities occurred in the entire studied spectrum
between October and January. The strongest
correlation, reaching up to -0.8 at approximately
310 nm, was observed between radiation intensities
and solar zenith angle. The value remained similar
for longer wavelengths, but shorter wavelengths
exhibited weaker correlation with solar zenith
angle. Total ozone column affected mostly the
short wavelengths, with correlations reaching up to
-0.4 at about 295 nm. With increasing wavelength,
the correlation with total ozone column became
weaker, reaching -0.1 at approximately 313 nm.
The effect of cloudiness was studied using the
cloud modification factor, which uses theoretical
radiation intensities modeled for clear sky. The
correlation between radiation intensity and cloud
modification factor increased to about 330 nm,
where it reached 0.5.
Acknowledgments: This study was performed
under the financial support of the Project of the
Czech Hydrometeorological Institute No.
03461022 ‘Monitoring of the ozone layer and UV
radiation in Antarctica’, funded by the State
Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic and the
projects LM2015078 and
CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001708 funded by the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the
18
Czech Republic. Data courtesy of the Czech
Hydrometeorological Institute.
References:
Čížková, K., Láska, K., Metelka, L., Staněk, M.
(2019). Intercomparison of Ground- and Satellite-
Based Total Ozone Data Products at Marambio
Base, Antarctic Peninsula Region. Atmosphere 10,
1–26.
Harm, W. (1980). Biological effects of UV
radiation. Cambridge University Press, 216 p.
ISBN: 0521221218.
Solomon, S., Ivy, D. J., Kinnison, D., Mills, M. J.,
Neely, R. R., Schmidt, A. (2016). Emergence of
healing in the Antarctic ozone layer. Science
10.1126, 1–12.
Yu, S.-L., Lee, S.-K. (2017). Ultraviolet radiation:
DNA damage, repair, and human disorders.
Mollecular and Cellular Toxicology 13, 21–28.
19
Deglaciation of the central sector of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet in northern British Columbia
Helen E. Dulfer*, Martin Margold
Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Charles University, Prague.
The Cordilleran Ice Sheet (CIS) repeatedly covered
western Canada during the Pleistocene and attained
a volume and area similar to that of the present-day
Greenland Ice Sheet. Although the CIS only made
up a small component of the total North American
Ice Sheet Complex, recent numerical modelling
studies indicate that the CIS’s response to the
climate fluctuations of the late Pleistocene directly
impacted climate dynamics and the timing of
meltwater discharge into the Pacific and Arctic
oceans (e.g. Peltier et al., 2015; Lambeck et al.,
2017; and Menounos et al., 2017). However, the
CIS is one of the least understood ephemeral
Pleistocene ice sheets. The mountainous subglacial
terrain makes it challenging to reconstruct the
deglacial dynamics, thus far impeding the
reconstruction of ice sheet scale retreat patterns.
Consequently, the empirical evidence required to
understand how the CIS responded to these
climatic fluctuations is lacking.
Here we use the glacial landform record to
reconstruct the deglaciation dynamics of the central
sector of the CIS in northern British Columbia.
Numerous high elevation meltwater notches
suggest the early emergence of mountain peaks
above the ice sheet and the configuration of ice
marginal landforms, particularly lateral meltwater
channels, eskers, kame terraces and ice-contact
deltas, allows the westward retreat of the ice
margin to be traced towards ice dispersal centres in
the Skeena and Coast mountains. Hundreds of
arcuate, sharp-crested terminal moraines delineate
the extent of alpine glaciers, ice caps and ice fields
that regrew on mountain peaks above the CIS.
Numerical dating indicates that this readvance
occurred during the late glacial period, likely
during the Younger Dryas (Menounos et al., 2017).
Additionally, at some locations cross-cutting
relationships preserve the interaction of the local
readvance glaciers with the trunk glaciers of the
CIS, allowing the extent of the central sector of the
CIS during the late glacial period to be
reconstructed for the first time.
Acknowledgements: This research is supported by
the Charles University Grant Agency (GAUK
432119).
References:
Lambeck, K., Purcell, A., and Zhao, S., 2017. The
North American Late Wisconsin ice sheet and
mantle viscosity from glacial rebound analyses.
Quaternary Science Reviews, 158, 172-210.
Menounos, B., Goehring, B.M., Osborn, G.,
Margold, M., Ward, B., Bond, J., Clarke, G.K.C.,
Clague, J.J., Lakeman, T., Koch, J., Caffee, M.W.,
Gosse, J., Stroeven, A.P., Seguinot, J., and
Heyman, J., 2017. Cordilleran Ice Sheet mass loss
preceded climate reversals near the Pleistocene
Termination. Science, 358, 781-784.
Peltier, W.R. Argus, D.F., and Drummond, R.,
2015. Space geodesy constrains ice age terminal
deglaciation: The global ICE-6G_C (VM5a)
model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid
Earth, 120, 450-487.
20
Preliminary palaeoenvironmental reconstruction of the sedimentary infill of a tectonic valley:
the Jinačovice exposure (Brno-venkov district) case study
Jakub Holuša
Polar-Geo-Lab, Department of Geography, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2, Brno, 602 00, Czechia
A new exposure in Jinačovice (Brno-venkov
district) records sedimentation driven by
Pleistocene climatic cyclicity. This section was
found during the verification of the Pecka’s (2012)
list of abandoned brickyards and significant loess
sections in Brno and closest neighbourhood. The
studied section is located in a valley connected with
the presence of the local fault (see Fig. 1)
significantly affecting the geological setting.
The combination of macro- and microanalyses was
chosen for the study of this section, which will
allow the reconstruction of the
palaeoenvironmental conditions that occurred
during the formation of this sedimentary
succession. Seven samples of individual
sedimentary units were taken for granulometric
analysis, quartz exoscopy and heavy mineral
analysis and two monolithic blocks of the sediments
for thin sections. For the quartz exoscopy, the
quartz grains of the 500–1000 μm fraction were
subsampled and analysed both under the optical and
scanning electron microscope. For the heavy
mineral analysis, the fraction of fine sand (125–250
μm) was used.
The section and the origin of its constituents could
be divided into three parts: (1) the bedrock outcrop
composed of diorite and metadiorite together with
the in situ weathered material of these rocks; (2) the
sedimentary body composed of the solifluction
lobes and distinctive red-coloured sediments, most
probably resulting from pedogenetic processes; (3)
the loess or loess-like sedimentary body with
irregular lenticular and coarser (in comparison to
loess) lenses most probably deposited by slope
processes. Loess or loess-like sediments fill the
deep depression associated with activity on the
fault. Their thickness grows to the east with the
maximum about 5 m as revealed in the gully located
approximately 30 m away (see Fig. 2) from the
studied section.
Partial results revealed no signs of aeolian transport
on the surface of the grains of the loess sediments.
This may be the result of a very short (in time and
distance) transport – the signs of the aeolian
Figure 1. The studied section outcrop with the local fault visible.
21
transport will occur on the grain surface, which was
transported for at least a few hundred years
(Mycielska-Dowgiałło & Woronko, 1998).
Presence of the solifluction lobes and lenses could
be probably associated with the presence of the
active layer (Matsuoka, 2006).
References:
Matsuoka, N. (2006). Monitoring periglacial
processes: Towards construction of a global
network. Geomorphology 80, 20–31.
Mycielska-Dowgiałło, E., Woronko, B. (1998).
Analiza obtoczenia i zmatowienia powierzchni
ziarn kwarcowych frakcji piaszczystej i jej wartość
interpretacyjna. Przegląd Geologiczny 46, 1275–
1281.
Pecka, T. (2012). Zaniklé cihelny a významné
sprašové odkryvy na listu Brno-sever. Geologické
výzkumy na Moravě a ve Slezsku 19, 42–47.
Figure 2. View into a gully with the Jinačovice exposure
.
22
EUNIS habitats at the territory of the East European tundra (in the example of key area
on the right bank of the Kuya River)
Kseniia Ivanova
Komarov Botanical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Uchitelskay str., 18/1, 1357, Saint-Petersburg,
Russia
In this paper, the mapping of EUNIS habitat units
is investigated for East European tundras. All
habitat types in EUNIS are organized in a
hierarchical system. Each habitat has an alpha-
numeric index reflecting its exact position in the
hierarchy and the level of detail inheriting in it at
this stage. The EUNIs classification is practically
not developed for the tundra. A small-scale map
(www.eea.europa.eu) is presented for terrestrial
ecosystems by the European Environment Agency.
There are not many large-scale maps. For example,
ecological maps of the biosphere reserve “Western
Polesie” (Shatsky National Park, Ukraine) were
compiled, including habitats according to the
EUNIS typology.
Studies were conducted in the wooded tundra
subzone in July-August 2017 and 2019 on the right
bank of the Kuya River (Nenets Autonomous
Okrug). The area is about 20 km2. A large-scale
map has been compiled for each EUNIS level. The
aim of this work is to compare the already well-
studied key areas in the territory of the East
European tundra with the existing categories of
habitats EUNIS; to assess the representativeness of
the results. Using a large-scale map you can
Figure 1. EUNIS habitat types in the Kuya River region.
23
evaluate how much the modern EUNIS hierarchy
reflects the vegetation cover of key areas.
The habitats are assigned to 6 categories at the first
level of the studied site: C - Inland surface waters,
D - Mires, bogs and fens, J - Constructed, industrial
and other artificial habitats, S - Heathland, scrub
and tundra, T - Forest and other wooded land , X -
Habitat complexes. The map of level 2 and 3 of
EUNIS reflect the reality in the clearest way.
Complex habitats of river valleys are not correlated
with the categories of levels below 1. The area of
the undefined area is 3.8%. This type of habitat
includes lakes C1 (Surface standing waters), Kuya
river C2.3 (Permanent non-tidal, smooth-flowing
watercourses). The habitat type C3 (Littoral zone
of inland surface waterbodies) has been identified.
These are reed beds and other fringing vegetation
along the banks of lakes, rivers and a stream;
bottoms of dried rivers and lakes; exposed stones,
gravel, sand and silt in the channel of rivers and in
lakes. Grass moss swamps are assigned to D1.1
(Raised bogs). Large and flat-bumpy bog
complexes are related to type D3 (Aapa, palsa and
polygon mires). Ridge-hollow complex and high-
mound palsa mires within D3.1 (Palsa mires) do
not separated. According to the keys all areas with
permafrost are classified as tundra S1, which is
practically undeveloped. It contains only 2
elements of the 3rd level: S1-1 - Shrub tundra and
S1-2 - Moss and lichen tundra. There were only
boreo-alpine and arctic heaths (S2-24) in sandy
habitats and krummholz (birch forest not on
marshy terrain) identified at level 4. The area of the
unspecified area is 87.4%. At level 5 – 98.8%. In
conclusion, we can say that for the most complete
reflection of habitats and vegetation on large-scale
maps it is worth using EUNIS habitats of levels 2
and 3.
Table 1. Habitat types and associated vegetation at various EUNIS levels.
1 2 3 4 5
Steep hillsides (with birch
krummholz)асс. Empetro-Betuletum pubescentis T T1 T1-C T1-C1
T1-
C14
Psammophytic habitats
асс. Empetro–Betuletum nanae ,
асс. Loiseleurio-Diapensietum subass. salicetosum
nummulariae
S S2 S2.2 S2.24
Flat slightly drained terraces with
shrubby plant communitiesасс. Aconito septentrionales–Salicetum viminalis S S1 S1-1
Ridge-hollow complex mires, high-
mound palsa mire
асс. Rubo chamaemori–Dicranetum elongati , асс.
Carici rariflorae–Sphagnetum lindbergii , асс.
Carici rariflorae–Sphagnetum baltici
D D3 D3.1
Fensасс. Carici rariflorae–Sphagnetum baltici,
асс. Carici rariflorae–Sphagnetum lindbergiiD D1 D1.1 D1.11
Lacustrine low, drained lake
асс. Carici stantis–Warnstorfietum exannulatae
асс. Caricetum aquatilis → асс. Caricetum
aquatilis вар. Equisetum fluviatile → асс. Carici
stantis–Salicetum phylicifoliae
C C3 C3.2
The valleys of intermittent streams асс. Carici stantis–Salicetum phylicifoliae C C3 C3.1
River floodplain X
LakesC C1 C1.1
River KuyaC C2 C2.3
RoadJ J4 J4.2
EUNIS levelsVegetationHabitat
24
The registration of lichen monitoring patch photograps into time series
Snæbjörn Helgi Arnarsson Jack
Agricultural University of Iceland, Icelandic Institute of Natural History, Sólavallagata 7a, Reykjavík, 101,
Iceland
Lichens are a mutualistic relationship between a
fungal mycobiont and a photobiont such as an algae
and/or cyanobacteria. In Iceland there are at least
800 species of lichen forming fungi that have been
documented. Lichens are poikilohydric and lack
the ability to shed their parts which makes many of
them excellent bioindicators for air quality.
Since 1977 a monitoring program of lichens
growing around the iron-blending factory and
aluminum processing facility in Hvalfjörður in
western Iceland has accumulated interesting
results. Every two to three years monitoring
patches are assessed and photographed. Using
modern computer vision feature extraction and
registration algorithms, those these photographs
have been arranged into time series. Since the
species involved are infamously slow growing,
with some adding only a few millimeters of radius
to their thalli over decades, these time series give
us a unique glimpse into 40 years of life histories,
interactions, and ecology of these arctic flora and
funga. Further analysis of this data may have much
more to reveal, with work being done now to apply
machine learning for faster segmentation and
measurements.
My hopes are that with more research I will be able
to contribute more and more to the Cool Science
project.
Acknowledgements: Starri Heiðmarsson for being
a great teacher and advisor on this project.
Hafsteinn Einarsson for the positivity, patience,
support and help with the programing aspect.
RANNÍS for financially supporting this project.
25
Preliminary Results of Modelling on James Ross Island (Antarctica)
Klára Jeklová1*, Kamil Láska1, Michael Matějka1, Joachim Reuder2
1Polar-Geo-Lab, Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2,
602 00 Brno, Czech Republic 2Geophysical Institute, University of Bergen, and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
Obtaining spatially and temporarily detailed data
on boundary layer processes is complicated in
remote areas, such as Antarctica. Regional
Atmospheric models, e.g., Weather and Research
Forecasting Model (WRF), have become popular
for exploring mesoscale boundary layer features.
During the last ten years, several tendencies have
been observed in modelling with WRF in polar
regions. Firstly, most commonly used dataset for
boundary layer conditions were ERA–Interim or
ERA5 data. Secondly, planetary boundary layer
was usually parametrized using Mellor–Yamada–
Janjic (MYJ) turbulent kinetic energy scheme,
Mellor–Yamada–Nakanishi–Niino (MYNN)
turbulent kinetic energy scheme or Yonsei
University (YSU) boundary layer scheme. Finally,
the spatial horizontal resolution of domains does
not improve.
Near-surface air temperature inversions on James
Ross Island (eastern Antarctic Peninsula) can occur
almost 60 % of the time during winter months.
Consequently, 2-m air temperature variation from
two automatic weather stations (AWS) at 10 m
a.s.l. (“Mendel”) and 375 m a.s.l. (Bibby) was
simulated during an air temperature inversion
episode 21-25 August 2013. The model was forced
by ERA–Interim data and three boundary layer
schemes were used for comparison. The MYNN
boundary layer scheme showed a warm bias of
4.3°C for Mendel, while for YSU and MYJ the bias
was much lower (-0.6 and 0.4°C, respectively). We
compared the mean bias for Mendel and Bibby in a
simulation using the YSU scheme. Unlike the well-
simulated air temperature at Mendel, the mean bias
for Bibby was -5.1°C and no air temperature
inversion was simulated.
Multiple improvements were suggested in order to
get a better representation of air temperature
inversion in the simulation, for example improving
the horizontal spatial resolution of the inner
domain to 0.7 km or using the Reference Elevation
Model of Antarctica. The final simulation yielded
better results for near-surface air temperature time
series; however, the most important lesson from the
simulations was that the very complex topography
of the Antarctic Peninsula Region at 0.7 km
horizontal resolution caused instabilities in certain
grid points in the model.
Acknowledgements: The research was financially
supported by the project of Czech Science
Foundation (GA20-20240S) and the projects
LM2015078 and
CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001708 funded by the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the
Czech Republic.
26
How can rain-on-snow events contribute to the stream runoff
Roman Juras1*, Johanna R. Blöcher1, Michal Jenicek2, Yannis Markonis1, Ondrej Ledvinka3
1Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129,
165 21, Prague, Czechia 2Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology, Charles University, Albertov 6, 128 43 Prague,
Czechia 3Hydrology Database and Water Budget Department, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Na Sabatce
2050/17, Prague 412, Czechia
Rain-on-snow (ROS) events are natural
phenomena, which can significantly influence the
hydrological regime of regions with seasonal snow
cover. ROS events have been in focus of
hydrologist for last decades, because they are often
related to severe natural disasters such as floods or
avalanching. Prediction and modelling of
hydrological response caused by such events are
still challenging, because the rainwater behaviour
in a snowpack is not fully understood yet. The
snowpack often has an ambiguous effect during
ROS on the runoff generation, as it can either store
a significant fraction of the rain or amplify runoff
by additional snowmelt. The main objective of this
study is therefore to better understand the
circumstances of runoff production during ROS
events within 15 catchments in Czechia. These
catchments are located in two mountain ranges
(The Krkonoše, The Jeseníky) in altitude ranging
between 400 m and 1600 m and area varying from
2.6 to 181 km2. We identified 494 ROS events in
both mountain ranges within the study period from
2004 to 2014 (Fig. 1A). The identified ROS events
were further categorised into four groups according
to the magnitude of the event runoff (Fig. 1B) and
related hydrometeorological drivers were analysed.
Although the two mountain ranges are only
situated about 200 km from each other, they
showed different patterns in ROS occurrence and
in hydrometeorological parameters that control
Figure 1. Total number of ROS events over the study period from November to May A) in the Krkonoše and in the Jeseníky
and B) for four runoff types. Group 1 – No event runoff, Group 2 – Low event runoff, Group 3 – Considerable event runoff,
Group 4 – High event runoff.
27
runoff magnitude and timing. Most of the events
(69%) did not cause any significant increase in
runoff and only 30 events (6%) exceeded the one-
year return period. The fraction of the snow-
covered area together with snow water equivalent
were identified as important factors in the runoff
generation. Particularly, when positive, yet
relatively low air temperatures did not cause
significant snowmelt and the snowpack was
sufficiently deep and extended, a large amount of
the rainwater was stored. The results of this study
showed the importance of the snowpack, which can
often prevent extreme runoff even when a large
amount of rainfall occurs. Understanding the
protective role of the snowpack becomes even
more important with the decline of the snowfall
fraction and subsequent changes in snow storage.
Acknowledgments: We would like to thank the
Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of
Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life
Sciences, Prague (project no. 20184236), and the
Czech Science Foundation (project no. 18-
06217Y) for the financial support of this research.
We are also grateful to the Czech
Hydrometeorological Institute that provided
hydrological and climatic data.
28
High Latitude Dust transport altitude pattern revealed from deposition on snow, Svalbard
Jan Kavan1*, Kamil Láska1,2, Adam Nawrot3, Tomasz Wawrzyniak3
1Polar-Geo-Lab, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czechia 2Centre for Polar Ecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté Stoce 3, 370 05
České Budějovice, Czech Republic 3Institute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 64 Księcia Janusza Str., 01-452 Warsaw, Poland
High Latitude Dust (HLD) deposition in the
surface snow layer in two distant locations in
Svalbard (Hornsund and Billefjorden) were
collected during June/July 2019 field campaign and
examined in the laboratory. Despite differences in
their climate and topography, both locations are
characterised by very similar spatial patterns of the
deposition. On one hand, strong linear negative
relationship between altitude and HLD
concentration was found in low altitude (below 300
m a.s.l.) suggesting a strong influence of local HLD
sources. On the other hand, almost constant
concentrations were found at higher elevated
sampling sites (above 300 m a.s.l.). This implies
predominantly long-range transport in high altitude
areas. The importance of local sources in the lower
altitude corresponds well with the generally higher
concentrations of HLD in the Billefjorden area.
This region has more dry, continental climate and
more deglaciated bare land surfaces, that allow
more sediment to be uplifted in comparison with
the more maritime climate of Hornsund area in the
southern part of Svalbard. The spatial division
between the local and long-range transport is
supported by the proportion of certain lithophile
elements in the altitude gradient.
29
Visual exploration of data acquired at the Mendel Polar Station in Antarctica
Matěj Lang1*, Sergej Stoppel2, Jan Byška1, Bára Kozlíková1
1Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Botanická 68a, 602 00 Brno, Czechia 2University of Bergen and Rainfall AS, Norway
In this talk, we present novel interactive
visualization techniques for exploring diverse and
heterogeneous data captured by the researchers
from the Department of Geography at the Faculty
of Science, Masaryk University, in the vicinity of
the Mendel Polar Station at James Ross Island. The
data consists of measurements (wind speed and
direction, air temperature, and ground temperature
at various depths) and images taken by trail
cameras, aiming to capture snow level evolution
throughout the year.
The snow level must be first extracted from these
raw images that capture a set of marking sticks in
the field (Fig. 1). The snow's height is read out from
the markers, and currently, there are no options for
automated extraction from the images. Therefore,
the researchers are currently dependent on the
manual approach when selecting a small subset of
exemplary images and deriving the snow height.
Our solution overcomes this problem by proposing
a semi-automatic approach for snow level
extraction. It is based on image recognition of the
length of the markers. The difference between the
measured and reference length in every image
gives us the snow height at that time. Significant
outliers in the snow height suggest potentially
erroneous behavior of the algorithm, and they must
be treated manually. For this, we offer a novel
interface where the user can explore the derived
dataset and then manually adjust the snow height.
After this preprocessing stage, we integrate all
measurements and available datasets into our
newly designed PINGU platform, serving
interactive data exploration and hypothesis
generation. PINGU consists of several linked
views providing useful insights in data correlations
and data progression over time.
Figure 1. Extraction of acquired data.
30
Modelling of surface energy balance of James Ross Island glaciers, Antarctic Peninsula region
Michael Matějka*, Kamil Láska
Department of Geography, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2, 602 00 Brno, Czech
Republic
The Antarctic Peninsula region, including James
Ross Island, is known for its large climate
variability. Due to a mean summer air temperature
close to 0 °C, local glaciers are very sensitive to
temperature changes. To get a better insight into
processes driving melt of James Ross Island
glaciers, the Weather Research and Forecasting
(WRF) model was utilized. Firstly, the WRF model
was adapted to the research area using detailed
elevation and land-cover data. The model was
initialized and forced by the new ERA5 reanalysis.
The validation of the WRF model with observation
data was carried out for Davies Dome glacier in the
northern part of James Ross Island. The model was
able to simulate Davies Dome air temperature and
its variation very well. Wind speed and global solar
radiation showed a good correlation with in situ
measurements but were overestimated in many
cases. The WRF output was further used as an
atmospheric forcing for the High Resolution Land
Data Assimilation System (HRLDAS), a land
surface model. Based on the HRLDAS results, net
shortwave solar radiation (45.7 W·m-2) and
sensible heat flux (22.0 W·m-2) were the main
energy sources on Davies Dome in the 2015/16
period. Net longwave radiation (-51.3 W·m-2),
latent heat flux (-11.6 W·m-2) and snowmelt
(-7.3 W·m-2) formed the energy loss. The
HRLDAS output also confirmed that snowmelt
intensity strongly increased during foehn events.
Three foehn events, lasting in total 14 days, were
further investigated. These events generated 45 %
of annual snowmelt which implies their importance
for glacier mass balance. Principle features of
energy balance fluxes on Davies Dome were
discussed with other studies from the Antarctic
Peninsula region. It has been suggested that
sublimation has a greater importance in surface
energy balance on Davies Dome compared to the
South Shetland Islands region.
Acknowledgements: The research was financially
supported by the project of Czech Science
Foundation (GA20-20240S) and the projects
LM2015078 and
CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001708 funded by the
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the
Czech Republic. Access to the CERIT-SC
computing and storage facilities provided by the
CERIT-SC Center, under the programme "Projects
of Large Research, Development, and Innovations
Infrastructures" (CERIT Scientific Cloud
LM2015085), is greatly appreciated.
31
Arctic Justice
Daria Mishina
University of Lapland
The purpose of this project is to propose a new
Arctic tourism-approach: Arctic tourist taxation. In
contrast to other studies, I consider whether
business (especially expensive Arctic tourism) can
be connected to the direct Arctic development by
governmental taxation and/or charity. Specifically,
I focus on the needed changes in the understanding
of the Arctic tourism in general. (Under the "Arctic
tourism" I analyze high-, low- and sub-Arctic
territories).
Principles and goals of the “Arctic Justice” are
oriented on help, initiation and promotion of the
needed Arctic development by combining business
and pleasure. Using qualitative method of analysis,
I found the evidence of possibility to manage a
“Arctic tourist taxation” as a new program of the
Arctic Council or “Arctic Justice” as an
independent NGO. I propose to charge tour
operators and tourists by 1% of the tour’s price for
the further development of the Arctic regions. This
approach will build a “checkpoint” in front of the
gate to the North. The project can be implemented
not only for indigenous and non-indigenous people
in the Northern regions, but also for supporting
Arctic ecology: animals’ protection, national
parks’ building and development.
I assume, that “Arctic tourist taxation” will not
decrease the number of tourists and even attract
more tourists, experts and scientists from many
different countries, and more people around the
world will know more about the Arctic regions.
Every Arctic tourist is able to take part in the
further Arctic development personally. The Arctic
regions have a bright future, but the way it will be
managed depends on our behavior and
responsibilities.
32
Resistance of Antarctic moss Sanionia uncinata to photoinhibition: analysis of limitation of
photosynthetic processes
Alla Orekhova*, Miloš Barták, Josef Hájek
Department of Experimental Biology, Division of Plant Physiology and Anatomy, Faculty of Science,
Masaryk University, Kamenice 5, 625 00 Brno, Czech Republic
Sanionia uncinata (Hedw.) Loeske is one of the
dominant moss species in both the Arctic and
Antarctic regions. The aim of the series of
laboratory experiments was to compare the
negative effects of short-term photoinhibition on S.
uncinata from two sites of Antarctica that differed
in their microclimate, light regime in particular.
Samples of Sanionia uncinata were collected from
the James Ross Island (JRI, Solorina Valley) and
the King Ross Island (KGI, Collins Bay).
Photosynthetic processes were investigated in
response to controlled photoinhibition (1 h
exposition to 2000 µmol m-2s-1 of
photosynthetically active radiation – PAR). For
this purpose, we used a LED light source (LED
Lights SL 3500, Photon Systems Instruments,
Czech Republic). Responses of primary
photosynthetic processes to photoinhibitory
treatment were evaluated by the measurements of
chlorophyll fluorescence (HFC-010 Fluorocam
(Photon Systems Instruments, Czech Republic) on
wet samples (48 h hydration). Kautsky slow
kinetics was measured followed by subsequent
calculation of the maximum (FV/FM) and effective
(ΦPSII) quantum yield of PSII and other chlorophyll
fluorescence (ChlF) parameters. The
measurements were taken before/after
photoinhibition/during recovery. Additionally,
rapid induction kinetics of chlorophyll
fluorescence (OJIP) were measured by a FL1-100
Fluoropen (Photon Systems Instruments, Drásov,
Czech Republic).
The shape and time course of slow Kautsky
kinetics as well as ChlF parameters showed that
they were sensitive indicators of the changes
occurring in the structure and function of PSII in
the course of the exposure to photoinhibition
radiation and consequent recovery. In S. uncinata
from the KGI, the values of FV/FM and ΦPSII
showed photoinhibition-induced decrease and fast
recovery (see Fig. 1). The recovery was completed
90 min after the photoinhibitory treatment. For the
samples from JRI, however, FV/FM and ΦPSII did
show such response which may indicate higher
resistance to photoinhibition than in KGI samples.
However, FV/FM and ΦPSII, values before
photoinhibition were higher in S. uncinata from
KGI than S. uncinata from JRI. It might be
concluded that S. uncinata is highly resistant to
photoinhibition in fully hydrated state.
The OJIP shape can be used for the detection of
stress effects in photosystem II. It flattens with
photoinhibition as reported for lichens (Marečková
et Barták 2017). Photoinhibitory treatment led to
the decrease of many ChlF parameters derived
from OJIPs such as e.g. Performance index (PIAbs),
ET0/RC – photosynthetic electron transport per
reaction center (RC). Negative changes resulted in
an increase in Di0/RC – thermal dissipation per RC,
PhiD0 – effectivity of thermal dissipation, ABS/RC
– absorption per reaction center (RC), and TR/RC
– trapping rate per RC. All parameters showed
partial recovery, however PIAbs and ET0/RC
remained inhibited even after 150 min recovery.
33
The study showed that S. uncinata from both
islands had high capacity of photoprotective
mechanisms to cope well with short-term high light
stress. The results indicate that KGI samples were
slightly more resistant then those from JRI. This
might be of particular importance for evaluation of
physiological adjustment of primary
photosynthesis in the field (KGI, JRI), where high
light stress may happen on fully sunny days in wet
thalli.
Acknowledgements: The authors thank the
projects ECOPOLARIS project
(CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001708) and
CzechPolar-I, II (LM2010009 and LM2015078)
for providing facilities and the infrastructure used
in the research reported in this study.
References:
Marečková, M., Barták, M. (2017). Short-term
responses of primary processes in PS II to low
temperature are sensitively indicated by fast
chlorophyll fluorescence kinetics in Antarctic
lichen Dermatocarpon polyphyllizum. Czech Polar
Reports 7, 74‒82.
Figure 1. Response of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters to photoinhibitory treatment (2000 µmol m-2s-1 PAR
for 1 h). Decline and recovery of potential (FV/FM) and effective quantum yield (FPSII) – upper panel, shape of
fast chlorophyll fluorescence transients (OJIPs) – central panel, and OJIP-derived parameters – lower panel.
34
The underestimated informative value of archaeozoological remains in Svalbard
Franziska Paul
Institude for Ecosystem Research, University of Kiel, Olshasenstraße 75, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Barents’ discovery of the Arctic Archipelago in
1596 shifted Svalbard from an undiscovered region
towards the economic-political sphere of various
parties. Over the following 420 years, the marine
and terrestrial ecosystems and their natural
resources were heavily exploited by numerous
countries. Whaling, hunting and trapping, as well
as mining and tourism left their traces. Changes in
population sizes, dynamics and distributions are
presumed to be far-reaching. Today we can find
human remains and their cultural relicts in
Svalbard’s landscapes as reminders of excessive
exploitation phases. However, we also find faunal
remains within the hunting areas that offer the
possibility of unravelling questions about the
animal populations themselves.
Delineating the status and highlighting the
potential of bone material in Svalbard constitute
the main approach and are based on expedition
reports, museum collections and the study of
further literature. Archaeological survey reports,
provided by Svalbard’s governor, clearly display
the lack of archaeozoological information. Animal
remains were merely marginally identified and in
large parts left unrecognized in the fields. The
disclosure of the distribution of death assemblages
is based on single observations and various
unspecific descriptions. Hence, the written sources
are often fragmentary, and their validity is
inconclusive.
Additional osteological material is considered by
including databases from selected museum
collections. However, due to restrictions, it is
currently only possible to a limited extent. Hence,
there is a considerable lack of important data.
Additional materials and information from
databases like Askeladden and Research in
Svalbard, but also from further literature complete
the desk-based assessment.
It has a high importance for conservation biology
to process past anthropogenic activities that had a
great impact on diverse animal populations.
Therefore outlining the status of archaeozoological
research in Svalbard constitutes the groundwork
for understanding future changes in populations.
Due to the huge gaps in the existing data,
reconstruction of past populations is bound to be
limited, but it definitely strengthens the importance
of archaeozoological work in Polar Regions.
35
Variability of the Arctic active layer
Claudia Pérez Ramos
Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain
Permafrost stabilizes temperatures through oceanic
and atmospheric circulation, regulates gas flows
and biogeochemical cycles, consolidates water
bodies and soil, and immobilizes pollutants present
in the soil (van Huissteden, 2020). Social concern
about global warming and arctic permafrost loss is
reflected in an increase in the publication of news
in all media. For decades, the CALM network has
been monitoring the active layer worldwide as it is
an indicator of the thermal status of permafrost.
Due to the ecological, economic and social
importance of permafrost, this study aims to know
the variability of the arctic active layer between
1994-2017 of 58 CALM stations and relate it to
variations in air temperatures as well as
biogeographical factors (such as altitude,
vegetation or geomorphological environment).
The results show year-on-year variations in active
layer thicknesses between -3.4 and 3.6 cm, with the
mean rate of change being 1.71 cm/year. There is a
positive relationship between the mean annual air
temperatures and the thickness of the active layer
in 63.8% of the stations, with ρ<0.25. Variability
has not been equal in all regions, highlighting
Eurasia as the area with the greatest variations and
rate of change in active layer thicknesses. In
particular, southern Kara Sea region (northeast of
Russia) had a rate of change of more than 3
cm/year. It was observed that at higher altitude
there is greater variation of the thickness of active
layer.The vegetations associated with greater
variations have been tundra and tundra shrub types
and the geomorphological environments with the
greatest fluctuations of active layer have been
glacial and periglacial and the marine-coastal
types. Regional differences may be due to climate
factors related to atmospheric and ocean circulation
as well as local factors, such as nival coverage, air
humidity, exposure or those studied in this work.
Studying the arctic active layer thickness is a
complex task due to the convention of different
biogeographical characteristics that can directly or
indirectly influence (Jorgenson et al., 2010;
Abramov et al., 2019). This study shows a trend
that, contrasted with other work and reports,
reveals a progressive increase in the active layer
over the next 5 decades, which will generate
numerous impacts associated with permafrost
thawing (Meredith et al., 2019), such as: increase
of GHG emissions and carbon cycle disruption;
increase of occurrence and magnitude of abrupt
physical disturbances, and soil sinking and erosion
as a result of thermokarst thaw, causing a
deterioration of the landscape; changes in
freshwater systems due to the decrease of
freshwater ice and modification of flows in runoff
and surface water; changes in nival and plant
coverage that, together with the albedo variation,
will contribute to feedback atmospheric warming;
effects to biodiversity and ecological succession,
with alterations in migration and an increase
pathogens; threat to food security and access to safe
drinking water, by the decline of fauna likely to be
caught by indigenous peoples (such as Inuit) and
chemical and biological water pollution; economic
and socio-cultural impacts on arctic populations,
with health and social welfare conditions
36
Acknowledgements: This work has been made
possible by the entire scientific community that,
through numerous projects and research, has
acquired and shared its non-profit results through
the global terrestrial network database for
Permafrost (GTN-P). Thank you to the entire GTN-
P team for having established a platform for
scientific cooperation with free access to such data,
allowing the free and open exchange of scientific
information for the whole public. Also thank the
NASA Langley Research Center's POWER
Project, funded through NASA's Earth
Science/Applied Science Program, for enabling
freely accessible data collection. Specially thank
Dr. Miguel Angel de Pablo for his detailed
revisions, the valuable time spent transmitting his
knowledge and the invaluable support that has
made possible the execution of this work.
References
Abramov, A., Davydov, S., Ivashchenko, A.,
Karelin, D., Kholodov, A., Kraev, G., ... &
Shmelev, D. (2019). Two decades of active layer
thickness monitoring in northeastern Asia. Polar
Geography, 1-17.
Jorgenson, M. T., Romanovsky, V., Harden, J.,
Shur, Y., O’Donnell, J., Schuur, E. A., ... &
Marchenko, S. (2010). Resilience and vulnerability
of permafrost to climate change. Canadian Journal
of Forest Research, 40(7), 1219-1236.
Meredith, M., M. Sommerkorn, S. Cassotta, C.
Derksen, A. Ekaykin, A. Hollowed, G. Kofinas, A.
Mackintosh, J. Melbourne-Thomas, M.M.C.
Muelbert, G. Ottersen, H. Pritchard, and E.A.G.
Schuur (2019). Polar Regions. In: IPCC Special
Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing
Climate [H.-O. Pörtner, D.C. Roberts, V. Masson-
Delmotte, P. Zhai, M. Tignor, E. Poloczanska, K.
Mintenbeck, A. Alegría, M. Nicolai, A. Okem, J.
Petzold, B. Rama, N.M. Weyer (eds.)]. In press.
van Huissteden, J. (2020). Thawing Permafrost.
Springer International Publishing
37
Water column properties of Kongressvatn, Kapp Linné, SW Svalbard
Nil Rodes1,2,4*, Michael Retelle3,4, Alan Werner4,5, Steven Roof4,6
1Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation 2Universität Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
3Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, USA 4The University Centre in Svalbard, Longyearbyen, Norway
5Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts, USA 6Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA
Small perturbations in the ocean and the
atmosphere due to climate change have the
potential to trigger amplified climatic responses
over the Arctic. High Arctic lakes are among the
most sensitive systems, and climate change
strongly affects their physical properties, especially
water temperature, and mixing processes. To
anticipate future climate changes, a better
understanding of the magnitude and causes of these
changes are necessary.
Kongressvatn is a relatively deep lake (55 m)
located at 78°1’N and 13°59’E near the mouth of
Isfjorden, Western Spitsbergen, Svalbard
Archipelago. It is a remote and isolated Arctic lake
with limited anthropogenic impact making it ideal
for this study.
This study describes the physical and chemical
properties of the water column of Kongressvatn
during the 2019 summer when the lake surface is
ice-free. Conductivity, Temperature and Depth
(CTD), pH, dissolved oxygen and turbidity
measurements were made on August 1st, 2019,
during the fieldwork days of the AG-220 course at
The University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). This
study brings up-to-date insights into the properties
of the water column of Kongressvatn.
Kongressvatn is a meromictic lake with three main
water masses. The upper layer, which extends to 10
m depth, has a temperature of 8.25 degrees Celsius
and a conductivity of 0.54 mS/cm. Below 10 m
depth, the temperature decreases below 3 degrees
Celsius and the conductivity rises to 0.91 mS/cm.
This sharp pycnocline indicates that there is a
limited mixing of the water column during the
period when the lake surface is ice-free. Around
30-40 m depth, there is a well-developed
chemocline. The pH varies from 7.5 in the upper
water to 6.87 in the deep water. The dissolved
oxygen diminishes from 11.5 mg/L to 0.53 mg/L,
and the turbidity rises abruptly from 0.8 NTU in the
upper water to 1.3 NTU in the deepest part of the
lake. Sulfate-rich springs entering the lake along
the northwestern shoreline are likely responsible
for maintaining sulfate-rich anoxic bottom water.
Acknowledgments: This work is part of a course
project done in AG-220 Environmental Change in
the High Arctic Landscape of Svalbard, at The
University Centre in Svalbard. The author
acknowledges the other students of the course for
the help, The University Centre in Svalbard and all
the staff of Isfjord Radio Hotel for making the
fieldwork days comfortable.
38
Dating the sedimentary record from Monolith Lake, James Ross Island, Antarctic Peninsula
Matěj Roman1*, David Sanderson2, Alan Creswell2, Daniel Nývlt1
1Polar-Geo-Lab, Department of Geography, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 267/2, 602 00, Brno, Czechia 2Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, East Kilbride, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Lake sediments are natural archives of past
environmental and climatic conditions. In order to
reveal these changes, Lake Monolith sediment
(James Ross Island, north-eastern Antarctic
Peninsula) was sampled and analysed for multiple
proxy lines of evidence, including magnetic
susceptibility, grain size and XRF element
composition. It is crucial, however, to determine
the age of the sediment with absolute dating
methods to place the inferred palaeoenvironmental
changes within a dependable chronostratigraphic
framework. Previous study on the Monolith Lake
sediment by Björck et al. (1996) utilized
conventional 14C dating of bulk material, the
reliability of which, nonetheless, especially for the
Antarctic, has recently been questioned by Píšková
et al. (2019), who implemented several
independent dating methods simultaneously, i.e.
laminae counting, 14C and optically stimulated
luminescence (OSL) dating of sediments from
nearby Lake Esmeralda, Vega Island. The inferred
Late Holocene age of Monolith Lake sediments
should thus be revisited using novel dating
approaches.
OSL profiling and single-aliquot regenerative
(SAR) OSL dating was performed at SUERC (East
Kilbride, UK) and revealed a complicated
sedimentation history with at least one
discontinuity between the facies. The uppermost
section of the core covers approximately the last
0.5 ka (= thousand years). Below 5 cm there is a
significant increase in apparent age, to 2.5-3.0 ka,
which is roughly constant within ~0.5 ka for most
of the core. The lowermost samples below 25 cm
are significantly younger and form a progression of
older aged material at greater depth. This suggests
that within the last 1000 years there has been a
significant change in the sediment influx to
Monolith Lake. The age profile for Monolith Lake,
in particular the younger ages for material below
25 cm, suggests that the sediments below 5 cm
carried a residual dose when they were deposited in
the lake, with the deepest sediments in the core
carrying a smaller residual, or even having been
reset and thus giving a true age for these layers.
Recently, new preliminary cosmogenic nuclide
ages from hyaloclastite boulders in the vicinity of
Monolith Lake (Jennings et al., in prep.) provided
an additional clue on the timing of deglaciation in
this part of the James Ross Island.
References:
Björck, S., Olsson, S., Ellis-Evans, C., Håkansson,
H., Humlum, O., Lirio, J. M. (1996). Late Holocene
palaeoclimatic records from lake sediments on
James Ross Island, Antarctica. Palaeogeography,
Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 121, 195–220.
Píšková, A., Roman, M., Bulínová, M., Pokorný,
M., Sanderson, D., Cresswell, A., Lirio, J. M.,
Coria, S. H., Nedbalová, L., Lami, A., Musazzi, S.,
Van de Vijver, B., Nývlt, D., Kopalová, K. (2019).
Late-Holocene palaeoenvironmental changes at
Lake Esmeralda (Vega Island, Antarctic Peninsula)
based on a multi-proxy analysis of laminated lake
sediment. The Holocene 29, 1155–1175.
39
Comparative features of ice fluctuations in the area of the Svalbard
and Franz Josef Land archipelagos
B.S. Shapkin1*, A.V. Rubchenia1, B.V. Ivanov1,2,3, A.D. Revina2,3, V.M. Smolyanitskiy2,3
1St. Petersburg State University, Botanicheskaya 66/3, 608, St. Petersburg, Russia 2RF State Science Center Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Russia
3Institute of Atmospheric Physic, Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia
The features of the distribution of sea ice cover in
the area of the Franz Josef Land (FJL) and Svalbard
are associated with their geographic location, sea
and atmospheric circulations. Seasonal changes in
the distribution of sea ice cover in both regions are
generally similar to the ice regime of the Arctic
seas of the Siberian shelf. One of the main features
is the formation of shore fast ice in the straits
between the islands and along the coast, as well as
the availability of flaw polynyas (Tislenko et al.,
2016; Zhichkin, 2014).
The greatest long-term variability of ice extent is
observed in the period from May to October. The
maximum fluctuations in the distribution of ice
extent are observed in August-September. It is also
important to note that in recent years, the situation
of complete absence of ice of the FJL region in
August-September has been increasingly observed.
In the article (Tislenko et.al., 2016) was found that
the maximum variability of ice conditions is
observed from November to April in the waters
surrounding the Svalbard, while in the FJL region,
according to our data, the situation is reversed.
However, the temporal structure of long-term
variability is very similar, which may indicate a
common external cause of the observed changes.
The analysis of the features of the interannual and
seasonal variability of the main elements of the ice
regime was carried out on the basis of calculated
information obtained in the World Sea Ice Data
Center of the Arctic and Antarctic Research
Institute (Smolanitsky, 2019). In this article, an
attempt has been made to divide the water area
around the FJL into three homogeneous regions. In
the article (Tislenko et al., 2016), the waters are
around the Svalbard was divided into 6 areas with
the following general geographic specific. Also, in
this article identified two seasons – the winter
season (November – April) and the summer season
(May-October).
In all areas in the water area of the FJL, as well as
in areas 1 and 2 in the water area of the Svalbard
since 2006, the amplitudes of interannual
fluctuations in ice extent, in the winter season,
significantly increase. This feature may indicate a
change in the ice regime in these regions; the
reason may be the warming of Atlantic waters. In
the article (Walczowski et al., 2012) notes, that this
could be one of the reasons that caused the
corresponding climate changes in the area of the
Svalbard in 2006.
A negative trend was revealed in the change in ice
extent in the studies areas during the period of
satellite observations (1979-2019), which
corresponds to the observed global trend of climate
warming.
Cyclical fluctuations in ice extent with a period of
the order of 5-6 years, observed in different seasons
in the Franz Josef Land archipelago, as well as in
areas to east and north of the Svalbard archipelago,
have been identified, which, in our opinion, are
caused by short-term changes in the structure North
Atlantic Current.
40
References:
Smolyanitskiy V.M. (2019). AARI World Data
Center for Sea Ice. http://wdc.aari.ru/datas ets/ssmi
Tislenko D.I., Ivanov B.V., Smolyanitskiy V.M.,
Svyashchennikov P.N., Isaksen K., Herdis M.
(2016). Seasonal and long-term changes of sea ice
extent in the Svalbard archipelago area during
1979–2015. Problems of Arctic and Antarctic
3/109, 50–59.
Walczowski W., Piechura, J., Goszczko, I.,
Wieczorek, P. (2012). Changes in Atlantic water
properties: an important factor in the European
Arctic marine climate. ICES Journal of Marine
Science 69/5, 864–869.
Zhichkin A.P. (2014). Ice conditions in the Franz
Josef Land region. Proceedings of Kola Science
Center RAS 4, 82–89.
41
Arctic permafrost is a promising ecosystem for rhodopsin-like proteins gene search
Artemiy Y. Sukhanov1,2*, Natalya I. Eromasova1, Elena V. Spirina1, Elizaveta M. Rivkina1
1Institute of Physicochemical and Biological Problems in Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences,
Institutskay 2, Pushchino, 142290, Russia 2Faculty of Biotechnology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
In Arctic permafrost deposits not only viable
microorganisms are preserved, but also the
products of their metabolism. Among permafrost
microorganisms were detected cyanobacteria and
green algae, which retained their photosynthetic
apparatus in darkness for thousands of years. It is
known that the composition and ratio of pigments
in photosynthetic bacteria and algae are specific for
different groups and depend on the environment.
They include chlorophylls and pygments, and in
some cases rhodopsin-like proteins.
Rhodopsin-likes proteins are a group of light-
sensitive proton pump. The most widespread
groups of microbial rhodopsins are: proteo- (PR),
actino- (ActR) and bacteriorhodopsin (BR). Most
of bacterial rhodopsins were believed to be
associated only with marine ecosystems. However,
BR gene of psychrophilic microorganisms
Exiguobacterium sibiricum (ESR) was amplified
from metagenomic DNA isolated from permafrost
deposits. This discovery gave rise to detecting
work of new types of opsin-like proteins. The aim
of this study was to search for genes encoding
different types of rhodopsins in Arctic permafrost
of marine, lacustrine, and alluvial genesis.
For this purpose, total genomic DNA from
permafrost samples was isolated. The search for
specific and degenerate primers for genes encoding
synthesis of the retinal ESR protein, ActR, BR, and
PR was carried out using published sources. We
selected 39 primers. However, using metagenomes
does not show a positive result. This fact gives a
reason to assume, that designing the new primers
based on the newest rhodopsin proteins sequences
can be more effective, and we synthesized 25
primers. The tested primer combinations did not
reveal the genes of rhodopsin proteins. This gave
us reason to believe that this strategy of searching
for rhodopsin genes in permafrost using primers
based on modern genes of modern organisms does
not work.
Also, we used a pair of primers for the complete
ESR gene. Using these primers, we were able to
detect the ESR gene in a sample of lacustrine-
alluvial sediments aged 32 thousand years. We
assume, that in the million years that have passed
since the last glaciation that formed the current
permafrost and stopped the process of adaptation of
bacteria, rhodopsins of marine and freshwater
forms have changed so much that the primers even
to their conservative sites are not complementary
to the sequence of rhodopsins in the metagenomes
of permafrost samples.
42
The current state of the glaciers in the Caucasus Mountains
Levan Tielidze1,2
1Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand 2School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
The Greater Caucasus is one of the major mountain
systems in Eurasia, stretching ~1,300 km from the
Black Sea in the west to the Caspian Sea in the east
with glaciers covering about 1200 km2. As the
Greater Caucasus Range is located on the boundary
between temperate and subtropical climatic zones,
the orientation and height of the range determines
the contrasts between the northern and southern
macroslopes, with generally larger glaciers in the
north than in the south.
In the first part of this work I briefly present the
history of the glacier research in the Caucasus
Mountains. The second part of this presentation is
about the percentage and quantitative changes in
the number and area of Caucasus glaciers. Some
results of the supra-glacial debris cover assessment
will be also provided.
Changes in glacier extent between 1960 and 2014
were determined through analysis of large-scale
topographic maps (1:50 000 scale) with a contour
interval of 20 m from several hundred aerial
photographs taken between 1950-1960 and images
from Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI),
and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission
and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER). The 30 m
resolution ASTER Global DEM (GDEM,
17/11/2011) was used to determine the aspect,
slope and height distribution of glaciers (Tielidze
and Wheate, 2018). The semi-automated methods
for mapping the clean ice with manual digitization
of debris-covered glacier parts was also used for
assessing the supra-glacial debris-covered area (as
the residual between these two maps) (Tielidze et
al., 2020).
References:
Tielidze, L. G., Bolch, T., Wheate, R. D., Kutuzov,
S. S., Lavrentiev, I. I., and Zemp, M. (2020). Supra-
glacial debris cover changes in the Greater
Caucasus from 1986 to 2014. The Cryosphere 14,
585–598, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-585-2020.
Tielidze, L. G. and Wheate, R. D. (2018). The
Greater Caucasus Glacier Inventory (Russia,
Georgia and Azerbaijan), The Cryosphere 12, 81–
94, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-81-2018.
43
The Ahuriri Glacier during the Last Glacial Maximum, Southern Alps, New Zealand
Levan Tielidze1,2*, Shaun Eaves1,2, Kevin Norton2, Andrew Mackintosh3
1Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand 2School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
3School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment, Monash University, Australia
Mountain glaciers are sensitive to variations in
temperature and precipitation – thus records of
their past changes yield important data concerning
the timing and magnitude of past climate change.
After the peak of the last glaciation (about 20,000
years ago), mountain glaciers began to retreat
significantly with slight advancement phases from
time to time. On the scale of several millennia, we
have only very indirect observations of glacier
retreat and advance based on the positions of
glacial moraines. Well preserved moraines provide
a good opportunity to develop an improved
understanding of ice ages and glacial-interglacial
transitions. Dating of the moraines using
cosmogenic exposure techniques such as 10Be is
providing exciting and important information on
the duration, timing, and scale of the Late
Quaternary glaciation (Last Glacial Maximum in
particular), as well as providing additional
information about the past climate.
Some valleys in South Island, New Zealand already
have a number of well-dated glacier records.
However, understanding of the precise timing of
old glacial events in many valleys still remains
poor.
We used field observation and geomorphological
mapping to investigate the extent and drivers of
glaciation in the Ahuriri River valley, Southern
Alps, New Zealand. Cosmogenic 10Be surface
exposure dating technique was also used to
constrain the timing and extent of late Quaternary
glaciation in this valley. Numerical glacier
modelling will be used later in order to Investigate
palaeo climatic implications for the study area.
44
High latitude dust in Iceland
Alexandr Vítek1*, Pavla Dagsson-Waldhauserová1,2, Olafur Arnalds2, Brian Barr2, Nathalie Burdová3
1Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences, Prague, 165 21, Czech Republic 2Faculty of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Agricultural University of Iceland, Hvanneyri, Borgarnes,
IS 311, Iceland 3Faculty of Science, Technology and Media, Mittuniversitetet, Campus Östersund, 831 25 Östersund,
Sweeden
High latitude dust (HLD) is a critical risk to the
climate and biodiversity in the Arctic regions and
Antarctica. HLD sources cover more than 500,000
km2 and contribute to over 5% of total global dust
budget and affects the atmosphere both directly and
indirectly.
HDL causes damages to health, affects the
economy by disrupting transportation, and disturbs
vulnerable ecosystems such as the one of Iceland.
Iceland is located in high-latitude cold region with
volcanic and glacial activity present in most of the
land. New mapping of the land surfaces show that
total Icelandic desert areas cover over 44,000 km2,
thus showing that Iceland is the largest Arctic as
well as European desert (Arnalds et al., 2016).
We have installed four different cameras in
Hagavatn, Mýrdalssandur, Dyngjusandur and
Seljaland. The dust storm frequency will be shown
based on the camera network observation as well
as measurements done with DustTrak and LOAC
at the Icelandic deserts mentioned above.
References:
Arnalds, O., Dagsson-Waldhauserova, P.,
Olafsson, H. (2016). The Icelandic volcanic
aeolian environment: Processes and impacts — A
review. Aeolian Research 20, 176‒195.
45
High Arctic small catchments on Wedel Jarlsberg Land (SW Spitsbergen)
─ connections and differences
Aleksandra Wołoszyn
Institute of Geography and Regional Development, University of Wrocław, pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137
Wrocław, Poland
High Arctic small catchments are not a common
topic in Spitsbergen scientific research although
they are numerous and their response for climate
change is quick and visible. Strzelecki (2009)
explains that small, glaciated catchments through
theirs high fragility for climate warming, relative
ease for field work, quantity and occurrence in
different locations and capability for modeling
cause that small catchments in Arctic become an
important aspect for glaciological, hydrological
and geomorphological research. What is more,
Strzelecki (2009) says that not many investigations
have been done in small High Arctic region what
results in lack of information about fluvial material
transport in glaciated catchments. Buttle (1998)
defined small catchments as areas ranging from
0,01 km2 to 100 km2, while Moldan and Černý
(1994) defined them as areas up to 5 km2. In
mentioned and other publications, we can see
absence of united spatial extent for small
catchments. For my own research need, the spatial
definition of small catchment will be up to 10 km2.
Wedel Jarlsberg Land, is located on Western
Spitsbergen (Svalbard Archipelago), stretching
from Bellsund fiord (in the North) to Hornsund
fiord (in the South), and bordering from the East
with Torell Land. It is worth paying attention to the
fact that numerous catchments, especially the small
ones, can be observed both glaciated and
deglaciated, might stand as role models for climatic
changes in this area. As Wedel Jarlsberg Land is
located in western part of the island its climate is
less sharp than in its eastern part what can be
observed on satellite images with area covered by
ice and snow. Due to milder climate we can
observe different ice coverage of the valleys, on the
Wedel Jarlsberg Land than for instance on Torell
Land in the East, therefore different stages of
deglaciation. The aim of this research is to show
differences between catchments with unlike ice
area by using remote sensing methods.
References:
Buttle, J.M. (1998). Fundamentals of small
catchment hydrology. Isotope Tracers in
Catchment Hydrology, in: McDonnell I., Kendall
C. (eds), Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1–49.
Moldan, B., Černý, J. (1994). Small Catchment
Research, in: Moldan, B., Černý, J. (eds.),
Biogeochemistry of Small Catchments: A Tool for
Environmental Research. Chichester: John Wiley
& Sons Ltd, 1–29.
Strzelecki, M. (2009). Suspended and solute
transport in a small glaciated catchment, Bertram
river, Central Spitsbergen, in 2005─2006, Norsk
Geografisk Tidsskrift – Norwegian Journal of
Geography 63:2, 98–106.
46
Featured remote sensing methods of investigation in polar landscape evolution
— solution for lockdown?
Aleksandra Wołoszyn*, Iwo Wieczorek
Institute of Geography and Regional Development, University of Wrocław,
pl. Uniwersytecki 1, 50-137 Wrocław, Poland
Polar regions are reacting rapidly for
environmental changes especially warming. Those
changes are easily visible — disappearing glaciers,
permafrost thawing and vegetation growth. The
changes can be well observed in small catchments
(< 10 km2), where reaction for changes is faster.
Consequently, such valleys may serve as examples
of ongoing climate changes. The development of
remote sensing and photogrammetry allows us to
make research on distant places without visiting
them, what is very useful when founding is limited
or the area of research is not accessible or in case
of lockdown – what we could observe this year.
The variety of methods is still in progress and
ranges more and more facilities and disciplines.
Owing to that, knowledge about polar landscape
and its past is more accessible and allows scientists
for deeper analysis which can be useful in other
environments. The aim of the poster is to show the
methods and their application with examples in a
clear and comprehensive way. To start with old
cartographic materials (maps), traveller’s notes,
old photographs and sketches thanks to which there
is a wide range of written sources. Development of
technology let scientists use satellites, airborne
radar, unnamed aerial vehicles (UAV), LIDAR and
last but not least terrestrial photography. Variety of
materials which we can provide from those
methods, allows us to get a good vision of terrain
that we would like to reconstruct. Current
worldwide situation related to COVID-19 did not
facilitate in-situ works in polar regions. In that case
adepts of polar research have to use home office
work. One the one hand it can be regarded as a new
difficulty in providing polar research but on the
other it can be also an opportunity to develop
mentioned research methods.
47
Pollen inferred Holocene vegetation and climate variability on sub-Antarctic South Georgia
Maaike Zwier1,2*, Anne E. Bjune1,2, Willem G. M. van der Bilt2,3
1Department of Biological Sciences, University of Bergen, Norway 2Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway
3Department of Earth Science, University of Bergen, Norway
The Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds play a
major role in the global climate system. By driving
circulation in the Southern Ocean and its
subsequent effect on upwelling of carbon-rich deep
water, the Westerlies affect global ocean
circulation and the oceans ability to take up
atmospheric CO2. Uncovering long term natural
climatic variability in the sub-Antarctic is therefore
crucial to understand how the global system might
react under future climate changes. Due to the
limited amount of land mass on the Southern
Hemisphere, sub-Antarctic islands are invaluable
for studying climate variability in this region. They
provide valuable insights into both local and
regional surface climate conditions. South Georgia
is positioned in the core belt of the Southern
Hemisphere Westerly Winds and located at the
boundary of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and
Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone. Its position is
therefore ideal to capture changes in these major
atmospheric and oceanic circulation systems. We
use a pollen record from Lake Diamond to provide
detailed reconstructions of vegetation and climate
on South Georgia for the last ~9900 years. The
behavior of the Westerlies acts as a first-order
control on local vegetation change by impacting
temperature conditions and moisture availability.
Changes in relative pollen abundance of native taxa
occupying either upland (cold) or lowland (warm)
environments are used to infer local climatic
variation, supported by additional
sedimentological proxies. In addition, Westerly
Wind strength and position governs the influx of
long-distance transported pollen from South
America, Africa and New Zealand. On South
Georgia we find that the non-native pollen from
several taxa, mainly Nothofagus, Ephedra and
Asteraceae, increase in abundance in periods of
local cooler and wetter climate conditions.
48
Looking forward to meeting you in Brno again!
