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The past and future of global river ice

Author

Listed:
  • Xiao Yang

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

  • Tamlin M. Pavelsky

    (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

  • George H. Allen

    (Texas A&M University)

Abstract

More than one-third of Earth’s landmass is drained by rivers that seasonally freeze over. Ice transforms the hydrologic1,2, ecologic3,4, climatic5 and socio-economic6–8 functions of river corridors. Although river ice extent has been shown to be declining in many regions of the world1, the seasonality, historical change and predicted future changes in river ice extent and duration have not yet been quantified globally. Previous studies of river ice, which suggested that declines in extent and duration could be attributed to warming temperatures9,10, were based on data from sparse locations. Furthermore, existing projections of future ice extent are based solely on the location of the 0-°C isotherm11. Here, using satellite observations, we show that the global extent of river ice is declining, and we project a mean decrease in seasonal ice duration of 6.10 ± 0.08 days per 1-°C increase in global mean surface air temperature. We tracked the extent of river ice using over 400,000 clear-sky Landsat images spanning 1984–2018 and observed a mean decline of 2.5 percentage points globally in the past three decades. To project future changes in river ice extent, we developed an observationally calibrated and validated model, based on temperature and season, which reduced the mean bias by 87 per cent compared with the 0-degree-Celsius isotherm approach. We applied this model to future climate projections for 2080–2100: compared with 2009–2029, the average river ice duration declines by 16.7 days under Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5, whereas under RCP 4.5 it declines on average by 7.3 days. Our results show that, globally, river ice is measurably declining and will continue to decline linearly with projected increases in surface air temperature towards the end of this century.

Suggested Citation

  • Xiao Yang & Tamlin M. Pavelsky & George H. Allen, 2020. "The past and future of global river ice," Nature, Nature, vol. 577(7788), pages 69-73, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:577:y:2020:i:7788:d:10.1038_s41586-019-1848-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-019-1848-1
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Gang Zhao & Yao Li & Liming Zhou & Huilin Gao, 2022. "Evaporative water loss of 1.42 million global lakes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    2. Renata Graf & Tomasz Kolerski & Senlin Zhu, 2022. "Predicting Ice Phenomena in a River Using the Artificial Neural Network and Extreme Gradient Boosting," Resources, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-26, January.
    3. Liwei Zhang & Sibo Zhang & Xinghui Xia & Tom J. Battin & Shaoda Liu & Qingrui Wang & Ran Liu & Zhifeng Yang & Jinren Ni & Emily H. Stanley, 2022. "Unexpectedly minor nitrous oxide emissions from fluvial networks draining permafrost catchments of the East Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. Brown, Eloise J. & King, Amanda L. & Duvoy, Paul X. & Trochim, Erin & Kasper, Jeremy L. & Wilson, Melany L. & Ravens, Thomas M., 2023. "Site suitability analysis of hydrokinetic river energy resources at community microgrids on the Kuskokwim River, Alaska," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    5. Diana Šarauskienė & Darius Jakimavičius & Aldona Jurgelėnaitė & Jūratė Kriaučiūnienė, 2024. "Warming Climate-Induced Changes in Lithuanian River Ice Phenology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-18, January.

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