Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-ttngx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-13T23:32:18.529Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Influence of Late Holocene climate on Lake Eggers hydrology, McMurdo Sound

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2021

E.J. Chamberlain Open the ORCID record for E.J. Chamberlain [Opens in a new window] ,
A.J. Christ Open the ORCID record for A.J. Christ [Opens in a new window]  and
R.W. Fulweiler Open the ORCID record for R.W. Fulweiler [Opens in a new window]
E.J. Chamberlain*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA02215USA
A.J. Christ
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA02215USA Department of Geology, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT05405, USA
R.W. Fulweiler
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, Boston, MA02215USA Department of Biology, Boston University, Boston, MA02215, USA
*
echamber@ucsd.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Ice-covered lakes in Antarctica preserve records of regional hydroclimate and harbour extreme ecosystems that may serve as terrestrial analogues for exobiotic environments. Here, we examine the impacts of hydroclimate and landscape on the formation history of Lake Eggers, a small ice-sealed lake, located in the coastal polar desert of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica (78°S). Using ground penetrating radar surveys and three lake ice cores we characterize the ice morphology and chemistry. Lake ice geochemistry indicates that Lake Eggers is fed primarily from local snowmelt that accreted onto the lake surface during runoff events. Radiocarbon ages of ice-encased algae suggest basal ice formed at least 735 ± 20 calibrated years before present (1215 C.E.). Persisting through the Late Holocene, Lake Eggers alternated between periods of ice accumulation and sublimation driven by regional climate variability in the western Ross Sea. For example, particulate organic matter displayed varying δ15N ratios with depth, corresponding to sea ice fluctuations in the western Ross Sea during the Late Holocene. These results suggest a strong climatic control on the hydrologic regime shifts shaping ice formation at Lake Eggers.

Keywords

AntarcticahydroclimateLittle Ice AgeRoss Seawater-balance
Type
Physical Sciences
Information
Antarctic Science , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , April 2021 , pp. 217 - 229
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Antarctic Science Ltd 2021

Access options

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

Footnotes

*

Current address: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA

References

Abram, N., Mulvaney, R., Vimeux, F., Phipps, S., Turner, J. & England, M. 2014. Evolution of the Southern Annular Mode during the past millennium. Nature Climate Change, 4, 564–569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertler, N.A.N., Conway, H., Dahl-Jensen, D., Emanuelsson, D.B., Winstrup, M., Vallelonga, P.T., et al. 2018. The Ross Sea Dipole - temperature, snow accumulation and sea ice variability in the Ross Sea region, Antarctica, over the past 2700 years. Climate of the Past, 14, 193–214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertler, N.A.N., Mayewski, P.A. & Carter, L. 2011. Cold conditions in Antarctica during the Little Ice Age: implications for abrupt climate change mechanisms. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 308, 41–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burkins, M., Virginia, R., Chamberlain, C. & Wall, D. 2000. Origin and distribution of soil organic matter in Taylor Valley, Antarctica. Ecology, 81, 2377–2391.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christ, A.J. & Bierman, P.R. 2020. The local Last Glacial Maximum in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica: implications for ice-sheet behavior in the Ross Sea Embayment. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 132, 10.1130/B35139.1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, D. 1963. Isotopic variations in meteoric waters. Science, 133, 1702–1703.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doane, T.A. & Horwáth, W.R. 2003. Spectrophotometric determination of nitrate with a single reagent. Analytical Letters, 36, 2713–2722.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Doran, P.T., Fritsen, C.H., McKay, C.P, Prsicu, J.C. & Adams, E.E. 2003. Formation and character of an ancient 19-m ice cover and underlying rapped brine in an ‘‘ice-sealed’’ east Antarctic lake. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100, 26–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dowling, C. & Lyons, W.B. 2005. Gas, tritium, stable isotope, and major ion data for lake waters: 2005–2006 Antarctic season. Environmental Data Initiative, ed. McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER. 10.6073/pasta/b421fcc8837e96c5f18c3bd88872073cGoogle Scholar
Dugan, H.A., Doran, P.T., Wagner, B., Kenig, F., Fritsen, C.H., Arcone, S.A., et al. 2015. Stratigraphy of Lake Vida, Antarctica: hydrologic implications of 27 m of ice. The Cryosphere, 9, 439–450.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fountain, A.G., Lyons, W.B., Burkins, M.B., Dana, G.L., Doran, P.T., Lewis, K.J., et al. 1999. Physical controls on the Taylor Valley ecosystem, Antarctica. BioScience, 49, 961–971.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooseff, M., McKnight, D., Carr, M. & Baeseman, J. 2010. Antarctic McMurdo Dry Valley stream ecosystems as analog to fluvial systems on Mars. In Gooseff, M., Lyons, W.B. & McKnight, D., eds. Life in Antarctic deserts and other cold dry environments: astrobiological analogs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 139–159.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooseff, M.N., Lyons, W.B., McKnight, D.M., Vaughn, B.H., Fountain, A.G. & Dowling, C. 2006. A stable isotopic investigation of a polar desert hydrologic system, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research, 38, 60–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooseff, M.N., Barrett, J.E., Adams, B.J., Doran, P.T., Fountain, A.G., Lyons, B.L., et al. 2017. Decadal ecosystem response to an anomalous melt season in a polar desert in Antarctica. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1, 1334–1338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gooseff, M.N., Wlostowski, A., McKnight, D.M. & Jaros, C. 2017. Hydrologic connectivity and implications for ecosystem processes - lessons from naked watersheds. Geomorphology, 277, 63–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, B.L., Denton, G.H., Fountain, A.G., Hendy, C.H. & Henderson, G.M. 2010. Antarctic lakes suggest millennial reorganizations of Southern Hemisphere atmospheric and oceanic circulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107, 21 355–21 359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hogg, A.G., Hua, Q., Blackwell, P.G., Niu, M., Buck, C.E., Guilderson, T.P., Heaton, T.J., Palmer, J.G., Reimer, P.J., Reimer, R.W., Turney, C.S.M. & Zimmerman, S.R.H. 2013. SHCal13 Southern Hemisphere Calibration, 0–50 000 years cal bp. Radiocarbon, 55, 1889–1903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horita, J. 2009. Isotopic Evolution of Saline Lakes in the low-latitude and Polar Regions. Aquatic Geochemistry, 15, 43–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howat, I.M., Porter, C., Smith, B.E., Noh, M.-J. & Morin, P. 2019. The reference elevation model of Antarctica. The Cryosphere, 13, 665–674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyndman, R.J. & Khandar, Y. 2008. Automatic time series torecasting: the forecast package for R. Journal of Statistical Software, 27, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kyle, P. 1990. McMurdo Volcanic Group Western Ross Embayment. Antarctic Research Series, 48, 113–116.Google Scholar
Lacelle, D., Davila, A.F., Fisher, D., Pollard, W.H., DeWitt, R., Heldmann, J., Marinova, M.M. & McKay, C.P. 2013. Excess ground ice of condensation - diffusion origin in University Valley, Dry Valleys of Antarctica: Evidence from isotope geochemistry and numerical modeling. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 120, 280–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, J., Doran, P., Kenig, F., Des Marais, D.J. & Priscu, J.C. 2004. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic composition of benthic and pelagic organic matter in lakes of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Aquatic Geochemistry, 10, 269–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyons, W.B., Tyler, S.W., Wharton, R.A. & McKnight, D.M. 1998. A Late Holocene desiccation of Lake Hoare and Lake Fryxell, McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica. Antarctic Science, 10, 247–256.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, S.L., Marchant, D.R., Lamp, J.L. & Head, J.W. 2014. Cold-based debris-covered glaciers: evaluating their potential as climate archives through studies of ground-penetrating radar and surface morphology. Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface, 119, 2315–2554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marchant, D.R. & Head, J.W. 2007. Antarctic Dry Valleys: microclimate zonation, variable geomorphic processes, and implications for assessing climate change on Mars. Icarus, 192, 187–222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marshall, G. & Thompson, D. 2016. The signatures of large-scale patterns of atmospheric variability in Antarctic surface temperatures. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 121, 3276–3289.Google Scholar
Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Whitlow, S., Twickler, M.S., Morrison, M.C., Alley, R.B., Bloomfield, P., Taylor, K. 1993. The atmosphere during the Younger Dryas. Science, 261, 195–197.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murray, A.E., Kenig, F., Fritsen, C.H., McKay, C.P., Cawley, K.M., Edwards, R., et al. 2012. Microbial life at -13°C in the brine of an ice-sealed Antarctic lake. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 20626–20631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
R Core Team. 2017. R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. http://www.R-project.org/.Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Ramsey, C.B., et al. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curves 0–50 000 years cal bp. Radiocarbon, 55, 1869–1887.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, R.H., Bertler, N.A.N., Baker, J.A., Steen-Larsen, H.C., Sneed, S.B., Morgenstern, U. & Johnsen, S.J. 2012. Little Ice Age climate and oceanic conditions of the Ross Sea, Antarctica from a coastal ice core record. Climate of the Past, 8, 1223–1238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ringuet, S., Sassano, L. & Johnson, Z.I. 2011. A suite of microplane reader-based colorimetric methods to quantify ammonium, nitrate, orthophosphate and silicate concentrations for aquatic nutrient monitoring. Journal of Environmental Modeling, 13, 370–376.Google Scholar
Wada, E., Shibata, R. & Torii, T. 1981. 15N abundance in Antarctica: origin of soil nitrogen and ecological implications. Nature, 292, 327–329.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wentworth, C. 1922. A scale of grade and class terms for clastic sediments. The Journal of Geology, 30, 377–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wharton, R.A., Lyons, W.B. & Des Marais, D.J. 1993. Stable isotopic biogeochemistry of carbon and nitrogen in a perennially ice-covered Antarctic lake. Chemical Geology, 107, 159–172.CrossRefGoogle Scholar