Shallow Groundwater and Brine Processes in Antarctica: Linking Seasonal and Interannual Changes in Active Layer Hydrology to Ecosystem Change and Thermokarst Formation

Abstract:

We report on measurements of soil hydrological and thermal properties from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica (MDV), and relate them to changes in the spatial patterns of shallow groundwater flow (water tracks), landscape subsidence (thermokarst), and microbial and invertebrate ecosystem response. We show that shallow groundwater in the MDV is primarily derived from snowfall and seasonal ground ice melt, but is evaporatively concentrated during the summer flow period to produce saline to hypersaline active layer solutions. Multi-year profiles of soil temperature and soil moisture indicate that water track flow is largely limited to the duration of active layer conditions (~2 months) and that water track discharge is characterized by an early season pulse as ground ice melts, and a late season pulse as solutions flowing downslope accumulate at the base of the water tracks. Evaporative concentration of water track fluids, coupled with soil salt dissolution, and/or cation exchange reactions, result in enrichment of water track fluids in chloride and sulfate salts (depending on local soil chemistry) such that initially fresh snowmelt becomes saline to hypersaline over several km of groundwater flow. These brines shape soil ecosystems in the MDV by controlling salinity-dependent habitat suitability for invertebrates and microbial organisms. We show that these soil salts and shallow groundwater solutions accumulate in local depressions to form ponds, and that where these ponds are located above buried ice, the presence of salts leads to expansion of the basins to form large thermokarst depressions. Because water tracks are primarily snow-fed, and are moderated by shallow groundwater processes, they represent a component of the Antarctic hydrological system that is likely to respond rapidly to regional changes in temperature and precipitation, altering Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems, carbon budgets, and ground ice distribution.