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The Cryosphere Discuss., 6, 2327-2361, 2012
www.the-cryosphere-discuss.net/6/2327/2012/ doi:10.5194/tcd-6-2327-2012 © Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
Area change of glaciers in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, 1919 to 2006
1Natural Resources and Environmental Studies Institute, University of Northern British Columbia, Prince George, British Columbia, V2N 4Z9, Canada
2Geography Program, UNBC, Canada
Abstract. We used Interprovincial Boundary Commission Survey (IBCS) maps of the Alberta–British Columbia (BC) border (1903–1924), BC Terrain Resource Information Management (TRIM) data (1982–1987), and Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) imagery (2000–2002 and 2006) to document planimetric changes in glacier cover in the Central and Southern Canadian Rocky Mountains between 1919 and 2006. Total glacierized area decreased by 590 ± 100 km2 (40 ± 7%), with 17 of 523 glaciers disappearing and 124 glaciers fragmenting into multiple ice masses. Fourteen of the glaciers that disappeared were less than 0.5 km2, and glaciers smaller than 1.0 km2 experienced the greatest relative area loss (64 ± 17%). Variation in area loss increased with small glaciers, suggesting local topographic setting controls the response of these glaciers to climate change. Absolute area loss negatively correlates with slope and minimum elevation, and relative area change negatively correlates with mean and median elevations. Similar average rates of area change were observed for the periods 1919–1985 and 1985–2001, at −6.3 ± 0.9 km2 yr−1 (−0.4 ± 0.1% yr−1) and −5.0 ± 0.5 km2 yr−1 (−0.3 ± 0.1% yr−1), respectively. The rate of area loss significantly increased for the period 2001–2006, −19.3 ± 2.4 km2 yr−1 (−1.3 ± 0.2% yr−1), with continued high minimum and accumulation season temperature anomalies and variable precipitation anomalies.
Citation: Tennant, C., Menounos, B., and Wheate, R.: Area change of glaciers in the Canadian Rocky Mountains, 1919 to 2006, The Cryosphere Discuss., 6, 2327-2361, doi:10.5194/tcd-6-2327-2012, 2012.