Recent greening of vegetation across the Arctic is associated with warming temperatures, hydrologic change and shorter snow-covered periods. Here we investigated trends for a subset of arctic vegetation on the island of Greenland. Vegetation in Greenland is unique due to its close proximity to the Greenland Ice Sheet and its proportionally large connection to the Greenlandic population through the hunting of grazing animals. The aim of this study was to determine whether or not longer snow-free periods (SFPs) were causing Greenlandic vegetation to dry out and become less productive. If vegetation was drying out, a subsequent aim of the study was to determine how widespread the drying was across Greenland. We utilized a 15-year time-series obtained by the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) to analyze the Greenland vegetation by deriving descriptors corresponding with the SFP, the number of cumulative growing degree-days and the time-integrated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index. While the productivity of most vegetated areas increased in response to longer growing periods, there were localized regions that exhibited signs consistent with the drying hypothesis. In these areas, vegetation productivity decreased in response to longer SFPs and more accumulated growing degree-days.

Cryoconite holes play a significant role in the nutrient cycling on glaciers and can be regarded as a storehouse of nutrients that are generated through microbial and photochemical activities. In this work, the chemical characteristics of hydrologically connected and isolated cryoconite holes from three geographically distinct regions of coastal Antarctica, namely Larsemann Hills, Amery Ice Shelf and central Dronning Maud Land were studied. Major ions (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+, Cl−, SO42− and NO3−) and total organic carbon in the hydrologically isolated, closed cryoconite holes showed significantly higher enrichment (6–26 times and 9 times, respectively) over the conservative tracer ion Cl− possibly due to sediment dissolution and microbial synthesis during isolation period. In contrast, depletion of major ions and organic carbon were observed in the open, hydrologically connected holes due to their discharge from the cryoconite holes through interconnected streams. This study suggests that the contribution of cryoconite holes to the nutrient and microbial transport to downstream environments may vary with the extent of hydrological connectivity by virtue of the fact that nutrients and organic carbon which accumulate in the isolated cryoconite holes during isolation could get washed to downstream environments in the event that they get connected through surface or subsurface melt channels.

Research on young thin sea ice is essential to understand the changes in the Arctic. But it is also the most challenging to investigate, both in situ and from satellites. If satellite remote-sensing techniques are developing rapidly, fieldwork remains crucial for the mandatory validation of such data. In April 2016, an Arctic fieldwork campaign was conducted at Kongsfjorden, Svalbard. This campaign provided an opportunity to combine various techniques to record the fjord ice properties ranging from local field sampling to broader ground-based and satellite radar remote sensing of the fjord. Tracking the boat used to access the field sites with hand-held GPS devices offered a good opportunity to map fjord ice and assess the limits of radar identification of small icebergs and thin ice. During 1 week, 17 icebergs and the thin ice edges in two different locations were mapped. The GPS tracks present a good agreement with the Radarsat-2 data analysis for one of the two ice edges. The second ice edge track only partly corresponds to the radar scene. Ice movement, recorded by a ground-based radar, is likely to explain this result. Grounded icebergs could be identified in both Radarsat-2 and ground-based radar.

The Arctic marine environment is undergoing a transition from thick multi-year to first-year sea-ice cover with coincident lengthening of the melt season. Such changes are evident in the Baffin Bay-Davis Strait-Labrador Sea (BDL) region where melt onset has occurred ~8 days decade−1 earlier from 1979 to 2015. A series of anomalously early events has occurred since the mid-1990s, overlapping a period of increased upper-air ridging across Greenland and the northwestern North Atlantic. We investigate an extreme early melt event observed in spring 2013. (~6σ below the 1981–2010 melt climatology), with respect to preceding sub-seasonal mid-tropospheric circulation conditions as described by a daily Greenland Blocking Index (GBI). The 40-days prior to the 2013 BDL melt onset are characterized by a persistent, strong 500 hPa anticyclone over the region (GBI >+1 on >75% of days). This circulation pattern advected warm air from northeastern Canada and the northwestern Atlantic poleward onto the thin, first-year sea ice and caused melt ~50 days earlier than normal. The episodic increase in the ridging atmospheric pattern near western Greenland as in 2013, exemplified by large positive GBI values, is an important recent process impacting the atmospheric circulation over a North Atlantic cryosphere undergoing accelerated regional climate change.

Full snow-pit observations were performed on a monthly basis over ten winter seasons from 1995 to 2004, at 15 study plots spaced at 100 m elevation intervals (1300–2700 m a.s.l.) in the mountainous forest of the Japanese Central Alps. We observed 514 pits with an average depth of 1.12 m. Density measurements were taken in 2610 snow layers in total. Monthly trends indicate that snow depth has a strong linear correlation with elevation and that the mean density of snow cover has a moderate linear correlation with elevation in midwinter. Snow water equivalent can increase as a quadratic function of elevation in January and February. For this reason, the influence of overburden load and wind packing is elevation-dependent from January to February, a period when a facet-prominent snowpack existed on account of low snow and air temperatures. The density of depth hoar is greater at higher elevations than it is for rounded grains in midwinter due to densification. On forested slopes, with increasing elevation, snowfall frequency and the impact of wind upon snow increases while air temperature decreases, causing elevational variance in grain shapes.

Glaciers retreating in response to climate warming are progressively exposing primary mineral substrates to surface conditions. As primary production is constrained by nitrogen (N) availability in these emerging ecosystems, improving our understanding of how N accumulates with soil formation is of critical concern. In this study, we quantified how the distribution and speciation of N, as well as rates of free-living biological N fixation (BNF), change along a 2000-year chronosequence of soil development in a High Arctic glacier forefield. Our results show the soil N pool increases with time since exposure and that the rate at which it accumulates is influenced by soil texture. Further, all N increases were organically bound in soils which had been ice-free for 0–50 years. This is indicative of N limitation and should promote BNF. Using the acetylene reduction assay technique, we demonstrated that microbially mediated inputs of N only occurred in soils which had been ice-free for 0 and 3 years, and that potential rates of BNF declined with increased N availability. Thus, BNF only supports N accumulation in young soils. When considering that glacier forefields are projected to become more expansive, this study has implications for understanding how ice-free ecosystems will become productive over time.

With rapid and accelerated Arctic sea-ice loss, it is beneficial to update and baseline historical change on the regional scales from a consistent, intercalibrated, long-term time series of sea-ice data for understanding regional vulnerability and monitoring ice state for climate adaptation and risk mitigation. In this paper, monthly sea-ice extents (SIEs) derived from a passive microwave sea-ice concentration climate data record for the period of 1979–2015, are used to examine Arctic-wide and regional temporal variability of sea-ice cover and their decadal trends for 15 regions of the Arctic. Three unique types of SIE annual cycles are described. Regions of vulnerability within each of three types to further warming are identified. For the Arctic as a whole, the analysis has found significant changes in both annual SIE maximum and minimum, with −2.41 ± 0.56% per decade and −13.5 ± 2.93% per decade change relative to the 1979–2015 climate average, respectively. On the regional scale, the calculated trends for the annual SIE maximum range from +2.48 to −10.8% decade−1, while the trends for the annual SIE minimum range from 0 to up to −42% decade−1.

Proglacial environments are ideal for studying the development of soils through the changes of rocks exposed by glacier retreat to weathering and microbial processes. Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents as well as soil pH and soil elemental compositions are thought to be dominant factors structuring the bacterial, archaeal and fungal communities in the early stages of soil ecosystem formation. However, the functional linkages between C and N contents, soil composition and microbial community structures remain poorly understood. Here, we describe a multivariate analysis of geochemical properties and associated microbial community structures between a moraine and a glaciofluvial outwash in the proglacial area of a High Arctic glacier (Longyearbreen, Svalbard). Our results reveal distinct differences in developmental stages and heterogeneity between the moraine and the glaciofluvial outwash. We observed significant relationships between C and N contents, δ13Corg and δ15N isotopic ratios, weathering and microbial abundance and community structures. We suggest that the observed differences in microbial and geochemical parameters between the moraine and the glaciofluvial outwash are primarily a result of geomorphological variations of the proglacial terrain.

Large discrepancies have been observed between satellite-derived sea-ice concentrations(IC) from passive microwave remote sensing and those derived from optical images at several locations in the East Antarctic, between February and April 2014. These artefacts, that resemble polynyas in the IC maps, appear in areas where optical satellite data show that there is landfast sea ice. The IC datasets and the corresponding retrieval algorithms are investigated together with microwave brightness temperature, air temperature, snowfall and bathymetry to understand the failure of the IC retrieval. The artefacts are the result of the application of weather filters in retrieval algorithms. These filters use the 37 and 19 GHz channels to correct for atmospheric effects on the retrieval. These channels show significant departures from typical ranges when the artefacts occur. A melt–refreeze cycle with associated snow metamorphism is proposed as the most likely cause. Together, the areas of the artefacts account for up to 0.5% of the Antarctic sea-ice area and thus cause a bias in sea-IC time series. In addition, erroneous sea ICs can adversely affect shipping operations.

The response of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to subgrid-scale variations of sea ice properties and fracturing is poorly understood and not taken into account in mesoscale Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model parametrizations. In this paper we analyze three-dimensional air circulation within the ABL over fragmented sea ice. A series of idealized high-resolution simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is performed for several spatial distributions of ice floes and leads for two values of sea ice concentration (0.5 and 0.9) and several ambient wind speed profiles. The results show that the convective circulation within the ABL is sensitive to the subgrid-scale spatial distribution of sea ice. Considerable variability of several domain-averaged quantities – cloud liquid water content, surface turbulent heat flux (THF) – is found for different arrangements of floes. Moreover, the organized structure of air circulation leads to spatial covariance of variables characterizing the ABL. Based on the example of THF, it is demonstrated that this covariance may lead to substantial errors when THF values are estimated from area-averaged quantities, as it is done in mesoscale NWP models. This suggests the need for developing suitable parametrizations of ABL effects related to subgrid-scale sea ice features for these models.

The medium-high mountain ranges of Western Europe are undergoing rapid socio-environmental changes. The aim of this study is to show that their landscape can be strongly shaped by the actions of avalanche activity, humans and climate. The study area is the Rothenbachkopf-Rainkopf complex, a site representative of avalanche-prone areas of the Vosges Mountains (France). A geo-historical approach documents regular avalanche activity over more than 200 years on 13 paths. A diachronic analysis of historical maps and photographs demonstrates substantial afforestation (from 60 to 80% of the total surface since 1832). LIDAR data and field surveys highlight the existence of a longitudinal and transversal structure of trees. Hence, the avalanche, human and climate activity footprints are retained by the landscape, which rapidly adapts to these changing drivers. Specifically, the pattern of tree species and heights results from a near equilibrium with regular avalanche activity sometimes disturbed by major avalanches that induce quasi-cyclic changes in the landscape mosaic. The afforestation trend is attributable to profound changes in silvo-pastoral practices, supplemented by the impact of climate change. The wider relevance of the results in relation to the local context is discussed, as well as outlooks that can refine our understanding of this complex system.

This survey presents the first high-throughput characterisation of fungal distribution based on ITS2 Illumina sequencing of uncultured microbiome from a 1500 years old perennial ice deposit in Scărișoara Ice Cave, Romania. Of the total of 1 751 957 ITS2 sequences, 64% corresponded to 182 fungal operational taxonomic units, showing a low diversity, particularly in older ice strata, and a distinct temporal distribution pattern. Ascomycota was the major phylum in all ice samples, dominating the 400 and 1500 years old ice strata deposited during the cold Little Ice Age (LIA) and Dark Ages Cold Period, while Basidiomycota was mostly present in 900-years old ice formed during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP). Chytridiomycota and Mucoromycota phyla were present in recently formed and 400-years old ice, respectively. Among the 80 identified genera, Cryptococcus victoriae, commonly found in glacial habitats, was identified in all strata. A positive correlation between fungal distribution and ice conductivity, Ca, Na and Sr concentrations was observed across the ice block, with pH values trailing climate variations during LIA and MWP, respectively. Our record highlighted the presence of a complex climate and environmental-driven fungal community in perennial ice strata accumulated during the last 1500 years in Scărișoara Ice Cave.

To understand the geological origins of minerals in cryoconite and the nutrients sources for microbes on glaciers, we analyzed the Sr–Nd isotopic ratios of the four mineral fractions in cryoconites including saline, carbonate, phosphate, silicate and the organic fraction obtained from Gulkana Glacier in Alaska. The isotopes in the silicate mineral fraction exhibited spatial variation within the glacier (87Sr/86Sr: 0.704533–0.709563, εNd (0): −16.0 to 0.5), which can be explained by the different mixing ratios of the two distinct sources: one of the sources is lateral and terminal moraines or soil, and the other is the medial moraine of the glacier. The minerals in the cryoconite at the lower sites in the glacier are likely derived from the former source, whereas those at the upper sites are from latter sources. The mineralogical and elemental compositions also support mixing of the silicate minerals from the two local sources. The Sr isotopic ratios of the organic fraction also showed spatial variation on the glacier in the middle sites – a trend similar to those of the phosphate fraction. The results suggest that the organic matter is mostly the byproducts of microbes using the phosphate minerals as a nutrient source.

This paper presents new insights into the global carbon cycle related to CO2 consumption from chemical denudation in heavily glacierised Himalayan catchments. Data from previous studies of solute concentrations from glacierised catchments were reprocessed to determine the regional scale of CO2 consumption and solute hydrolysis. The results show that ~90% of the SO42− is derived from crustal sulphide oxidation and ~10% from aerosols and sea salts. However, HCO3− flux calculation estimates contribution from sulphide oxidation to carbonate dissolution (SO-CD) (~21%), similar to the contributions from silicate dissolution and simple hydrolysis (~21 and ~20%, respectively). Furthermore, the atmospheric CO2 consumption estimations suggests 10.6 × 104 mole km−2 a−1 (19%) through silicate weathering, 15.7 × 104 mole km−2 a−1 (28%) through simple hydrolysis, 9.6 × 104 mole km−2 a−1 (17%) through SO-CD reaction and 5.9 × 104 mole km−2 a−1 (11%) through carbonate carbonation reaction. Our solute provenance calculations clearly indicate that HCO3− production and CO2 consumption via silicate weathering reactions is balanced by the simple hydrolysis and coupled SO-CD process. This shows a counter mechanism operating in subglacial environments of the Himalaya as a source of CO2 to runoff rather than a sink.