Loss of Multiyear Landfast Sea Ice from Yelverton Bay, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

Abstract

For much of the 20th century, multiyear landfast sea ice (MLSI) formed a permanent ice cover in Yelverton Bay, Ellesmere Island. This MLSI formed following the removal of ice shelf ice from Yelverton Bay in the early 1900s, including the well-documented Ice Island T-3. The MLSI cover survived intact for 55–60 years until 2005, when >690 km² (90%) of MLSI was lost from Yelverton Bay. Further losses occurred in 2008, and the last of the Yelverton Bay MLSI was lost in August 2010. Ground penetrating radar (GPR) transects and ice cores taken in June 2009 provide the first detailed assessment of MLSI in Yelverton Inlet, and indeed the last assessment now that it has all been replaced with first-year ice. A detailed history of ice shelf, glacier, and MLSI changes in Yelverton Bay since the early 1900s is presented using remotely sensed imagery (air photos, space-borne optical, and radar scenes) and ancillary evidence from in situ surveys. Recent changes in the floating ice cover here align with the broad-scale trend of long-term reductions in age and thickness of sea ice in the Arctic Ocean and Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Acknowledgments

We thank Colleen Mortimer for assistance in data collection, and the Polar Continental Shelf Program (PCSP) for assistance with field logistics. This is PCSP contribution #010-11. ASTER data courtesy of NASA; RADARSAT-1 and ERS data were provided by the Alaska Satellite Facility; RADARSAT-2 imagery was provided by the Canadian Ice Service, Environment Canada. Funding contributions came from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Ontario Research Fund, and the University of Ottawa. The authors thank the Nunavut Research Institute and communities of Grise Fiord and Resolute Bay for permission to conduct this research.