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Description
The behaviour of river catchments, in conjunction with glaciers, permafrost and biotic elements, is undoubtedly one of the most important indicators of climate and environmental change in the Arctic region. The recognition of the hydrological processes and their changes in Svalbard is named as one of the most important research needs in the High Arctic. Water temperature is a principle variable, which has a significant impact on the aquatic environment in terms of water chemistry and freshwater biota. Main goal of the study is an identification of major factors shaping the thermal regime of arctic rivers and its temporal variability. The project will focus on the investigation of in-situ measurements in three selected glacierised and deglaciated catchments near the Polish Polar Station Hornsund in Spitsbergen, giving particular emphasis to the spatio-temporal variability of water temperature, runoff, precipitation, soil moisture, snow cover, ground temperature, groundwater levels, radiation, and their integration with tracer approach. The added value of remote sensing data, including imagery derived from both in-situ and UAV thermal infrared cameras will implement the analysis of spatial distribution of surface and subsurface thermal characteristics and flowpath of water. Archival hydro-meteorological data from the Hornsund station together with extended measurements proposed within this project will facilitate the modelling of water temperature dynamics to identify interactions between climate change and variability of thermal regimes of multiple arctic rivers. In order to forecast future hydrological conditions and their impact on polar environments, several data- and process-based hydrological models will be applied. The results of the proposed project will have extensive interdisciplinary applications, primarily in hydrology and climatology, but also in hydrogeology, geomorphology, and bio-ecology.
Summary of project results
The behaviour of river catchments, in conjunction with glaciers, permafrost and biotic elements, is undoubtedly one of the most important indicators of climate and environmental change in the Arctic region. The recognition of the hydrological processes and their changes in Svalbard is named as one of the most important research needs in the High Arctic. Water temperature is a principle variable, which has a significant impact on the aquatic environment in terms of water chemistry and freshwater biota. Main goal of the study was an identification of major factors shaping the thermal regime of arctic rivers and its temporal variability.
The essential part of the project was the fieldwork conducted in Southern Svalbard. Four field campaigns included measurements of water and ground temperature, soil moisture, flow velocity, and meteorological parameters. The spatial distribution of parameters within the catchments was achieved with the usage of the UAV. Therefore, the solute transport was investigated with tracer experiments. Collected data were processed and analyzed to be implemented during the modeling stage. Several approaches were tested to simulate the water temperature in the arctic river, with the best performance for Multiple Input Single Output Model based on the Stochastic Transfer Function and supervised machine learning method, Gaussian Process Regression. Solute transport in Fuglebekken was simulated with the OTIS model. Based on the already obtained results, two papers were being prepared to be published in high-index scientific journals. One has been already published in one of the most important environmental journals - Science of The Total Environment. It gained publicity of polish popular science media and resulted in two interviews pubished in Nauka w Polsce oraz Świat OZE, reaching out to non-scientists. Links to the outstanding project resuts were spread across the social media, such as Facebook. The outcomes of the project were presented during three internatonal polar conferences.
The field campaigns and data analysis implemented the study with a new perspective and broadened the knowledge of water systems in High Arctic. Proposed methodology and innovative field measurements created a space for future international collaboration resulting in joined project proposals and publications.The results of the proposed project have extensive interdisciplinary applications, primarily in hydrology and climatology, but also in hydrogeology, water resources, geomorphology and ecology of plants and animals. Research efforts carried out in this project gave valuable results that are of high importance as water balance of river catchments is one of the most important indicators of the state of the climate.