Modelling the impacts of a nitrogen pollution event on the biogeochemistry of an Arctic glacier

A highly polluted rain event deposited ammonium and nitrate on Midtre Lovenbreen, Svalbard, European High Arctic, during the melt season in June 1999. Quasi-daily sampling of glacial runoff showed elevated ion concentrations of both ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3-), collectively dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) in the two supraglacial meltwater flows, but only elevated NO3- in the subglacial outburst. Time-series analysis and flow-chemistry modelling showed that supra- and subglacial assimilation of NH4+ were major impacts of this deposition event. Supraglacial assimilation likely occurred while the pollution-event DIN resided within a/the supraglacial slush layer (estimated DIN half-life 40-50 hours, with the lifetime of NO3- exceeding that of NH4+ by 30%). Potentially, such processes could affect preservation of DIN in melt-influenced ice cores. Subglacial routing of event DIN and its multi-day storage beneath the glacier also enabled significant assimilation of NH4+ to occur here (60% of input), which may have been either released as particulate N later during the melt season, or stored until the following year. Our results complement existing mass-balance approaches to the study of glacial biogeochemistry, show how modelling can enable time-resolved interpretation of process dynamics within the biologically active melt season, and highlight the importance of episodic polluted precipitation events as DIN inputs to Arctic glacial ecosystems.