Emerging dominance of summer rainfall driving High Arctic terrestrial-aquatic connectivity
- Resource Type
- Authors
- J.K. Heslop; J. K. Y. Hung; Melissa J. Lafrenière; C. R. Beel; A. J. Schevers; M. A. Pope; John F. Orwin; Scott F. Lamoureux
- Source
- Nature Communications, Vol 12, Iss 1, Pp 1-9 (2021)
Nature Communications
- Subject
- Biogeochemical cycle
Multidisciplinary
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Science
Global warming
General Physics and Astronomy
Carbon cycle
General Chemistry
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
Permafrost
Atmospheric sciences
01 natural sciences
Article
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Arctic
Pluvial
Snowmelt
Environmental science
Hydrometeorology
Hydrology
Stream power
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 2041-1723
Hydrological transformations induced by climate warming are causing Arctic annual fluvial energy to shift from skewed (snowmelt-dominated) to multimodal (snowmelt- and rainfall-dominated) distributions. We integrated decade-long hydrometeorological and biogeochemical data from the High Arctic to show that shifts in the timing and magnitude of annual discharge patterns and stream power budgets are causing Arctic material transfer regimes to undergo fundamental changes. Increased late summer rainfall enhanced terrestrial-aquatic connectivity for dissolved and particulate material fluxes. Permafrost disturbances (
Climate warming is causing annual Arctic fluvial energy budgets to shift seasonality from snowmelt-dominated to snowmelt- and rainfall-dominated hydrological regimes, enhancing late summer and fall terrestrial-aquatic connectivity and higher material fluxes.