Proglacial regions are enlarging across the Antarctic Peninsula as glaciers recede in a warming climate. However, despite the increasing importance of proglacial regions as sediment sources within cold environments, very few studies have considered fluvial sediment dynamics in polar settings and spatio-temporal variability in sediment delivery to the oceans has yet to be unravelled. In this study, we show how air temperature, precipitation, and ground conditions combine to control sediment loads in two catchments on James Ross Island, Antarctica. We estimate that the sediment load for the Bohemian Stream and Algal Stream over the 50 day study period, the average sediment load was 1.18 ± 0.63 t km d and 1.73 ± 1.02 t km d, respectively. Both catchments show some sensitivity to changes in precipitation and air temperature, but the Algal catchment also shows some sensitivity to active layer thaw. The downstream changes in sediment provenance are controlled by underlying lithology, while differences in sediment load peaks between the two catchments appear to be primarily due to differing glacier and snowfield coverage. This identification of the controls on sediment load in this sub-polar environment provides insight into how other fluvial systems across the Antarctic Peninsula could respond as glaciers recede in a warming climate.

中文翻译：

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量化南极洲詹姆斯罗斯岛河流输送动态的沉积物来源、路径和控制

随着气候变暖，冰川消退，整个南极半岛的前冰川区域正在扩大。然而，尽管冰期前地区作为寒冷环境中的沉积物来源越来越重要，但很少有研究考虑极地环境中的河流沉积物动力学，并且沉积物输送到海洋的时空变化尚未阐明。在这项研究中，我们展示了气温、降水和地面条件如何结合起来控制南极洲詹姆斯罗斯岛两个流域的沉积物负荷。我们估计波希米亚溪和藻溪在 50 天的研究期间的泥沙负荷，平均泥沙负荷分别为 1.18 ± 0.63 t km·d 和 1.73 ± 1.02 t km·d。两个流域都对降水和气温的变化表现出一定的敏感性，但藻类流域也对活动层融化表现出一定的敏感性。下游沉积物来源的变化受到底层岩性的控制，而两个流域之间沉积物负荷峰值的差异似乎主要是由于冰川和雪地覆盖范围的不同所致。对这种亚极地环境中沉积物负荷控制的识别，让我们深入了解南极半岛的其他河流系统在气候变暖时冰川消退时如何做出反应。