Proglacial sediments in High Arctic glacier foreland: A case study of Werenskioldbreen, Svalbard

Abstract

The glacier environment exhibits a high sensitivity to global climate change, leading to progressive deglaciation and the exposure of previously ice-covered land. The newly exposed terrain provides a valuable opportunity to observe rapid ecosystem changes, such as the accumulation of glacial sediments, the development of soil-forming and progressive alterations in water and biogeochemical cycles. While developing hydrological and hydrogeological models for the Werenskioldbreen proglacial expanding zone, we encountered a significant problem due to insufficient data for parameterizing glacial sediments, which constitute the environment for water flow and storage. This study provides detailed insight into the physicochemical parameters of glacial sediments and classifies them in terms of grain size distribution, hydraulic conductivity, pH and the content of carbon (Corg), nitrogen (Nt) and phosphorus (Pt). We found that the marginal outwash plains of Werenskioldbreen are characterised by gravelly sand, sandy gravel and silty sand (28.6%, 23.8% and 19% of the total sample contents, respectively). The lateral moraine contains sandy clayey silt, silty sandy gravel or sandy gravelly silt (7.1%, 4.8% and 2.4 % of the total sample contents, respectively). The chemical parameters of young glaciofluvial sediments have lower values than those of moraines. Corg ranged from 0.07% to 2.70%. Nt was < 1.00 g kg−1 for 95% of the samples and < 0.5 g kg−1 for 81% of them. Pt was between 0.48 and 1.18 g kg−1. In line with the studies on this subject already published, we confirm that there is clear a relationship between the type of geomorphological form, its age, and the physicochemical parameters of glacial sediments.