Update (with Cranefly news)

Our AWS on Quelccaya has been decommissioned, and everything except deeply-buried tower tubing has been removed. Meteorological measurements spanning 2003 to 2018 are currently being analyzed; we welcome collaboration and data-sharing inquiries.

At least one aspect of our glacier field research will continue for another year. Also, we aspire to investigate the impact of continuing glacier recession on avian activity at Quelccaya (as reported here and here).

This week we learned more about a particular insect that was typically found at the AWS each time we visited for service and data recovery. Individuals and clusters of craneflies were observed beneath the snow surface in association with the AWS tower tubes (see above and below photos). We also observed craneflies on the snow surface near the AWS, elsewhere on the glacier, and at our glacier-margin camp. Craneflies appear to be an important food source for the many high-elevation bird species in the Quelccaya area (> 5,000m).

Cranefly photos were posted to iNaturalist after fieldwork in April 2014, seeking identification. These were identified this summer - after 6 years - based on a single specimen from Chacaltaya in Bolivia. Interestingly, this is the same location where the "Glacier Bird" (White-winged Diuca Finch, Idiopsar speculifera) was first observed in association with glaciers; Chacaltaya no longer exists.

The Quelccaya cranefly species is Dicranomyia hirsutissima. According to Pjotr Oosterbroek, author of "Catalogue of the Craneflies of the World", this is the highest known Cranefly record for all 15,000+ species found throughout the world.

This is yet another fascinating discovery from Quelccaya and the Cordillera Vilcanota, during nearly 50 years of investigation begun by Ohio State University scientists John Mercer and Lonnie Thompson.

Quelccaya Images

A new index (of sorts) has been compiled to better organize Quelccaya images depicting the weather station, snowpit measurements and sampling, as well as other aspects of fieldwork:  Quelccaya Gallery.

Links to images of birds living and nesting around & on the glacier are here.

BBC Glacier Bird filming

During our April/May 2016 fieldwork, we were joined by a BBC Natural History Unit crew. Their objective was to film White-winged Diuca Finches nesting on the glacier, a breeding behavior unknown among all other bird species. The project timing was fraught with uncertainty, for only 2 other active Diuca nests had ever been observed, and the 2015-16 El Niño event considerably impacted Quelccaya climate (overview here of a manuscript now out for review). Foremost in our minds was whether we could find active nests to film, when we arrived in April.

Fortunately, our timing was perfect; we observed all stages of breeding behavior, and successfully installed a remote camera at one of the nest sites. After a year in production the segment aired on BBC as part of an episode on the Andes, in the series Mountain: Life at the Extreme. Links to the BBC series are here and here.

This month, BBC Glacier Bird footage will premiere in the United States on PBS. The series takes a new name, Kingdoms of the Sky, with a new presenter, but otherwise appears identical: a three-part documentary "revealing the extraordinary animals and remarkable people who make a home on the iconic mountain ranges of the world - Rockies, Himalaya and Andes." The three episodes will initially air on Wednesday evenings, beginning with The Rockies on July 11 at 9 PM EDT. Himalaya premieres one week later on July 18, and Andes premieres on July 25.

The PBS series website is here, and DVDs can be pre-ordered now.

At the moment, the Glacier Bird segment can be viewed from the right-hand side of the series homepage. Click on "Meet the Bird that Nests Inside Glaciers" to see the first-ever footage of Diuca speculifera nestlings.

Even better is an 8-minute, behind-the-scenes look at Quelccaya filming, available from PBS here. Images from that clip are included above and below.

Our extended fieldwork with BBC in April 2016 was good fun, and provided new observations of Diuca and other high-elevation species. Please check our website for the Glacier Bird, and stay tuned for a new publication (still in review; contact us for a synopsis of the paper, or a pre-print).

Glacier Bird on BBC

The final episode of BBC TWO's new documentary series about mountains will air at 9 pm on 13 September, featuring a variety of sequences filmed in the Andes.

Among the Andes sequences will be a segment filmed at Quelccaya, as described above. Several wonderful "behind the scenes" clips have been produced for the Glacier Bird film, one of which is here (hopefully available soon in North America). A link to the page above, with an embedded clip, is here.

Since the time of filming - just last year - science has moved forward:  we have discovered a second species of bird which also nests on the glacier (Hardy et al., submitted to Wilson Journal of Ornithology), and Glacier Bird's taxonomic classification has changed from Diuca speculifera to Idiopsar speculifer. The common name in English remains White-winged Diuca-Finch, but this too may change because the bird is not a Diuca-Finch!

For those not in the UK, the series will be broadcast in North America by PBS at a later date.

"Mountain: Life At The Extreme" (new BBC series)

On Wednesday evenings at 9 pm starting 30 August, television network BBC TWO will be airing a new 3-part documentary series exploring three different mountain ranges: the Rockies, the Himalaya and the Andes.

Each episode is more than a natural history program in that it depicts examples of both the "extraordinary animals and remarkable people" living in these extreme environments (quote credit here).

The Rocky Mountain sequences feature wolverines, extreme skier Hilaree O'Neill, big horn sheep, and Native American horse racing - among others. Clips and more are available on their website:  <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b093x4gb>

The Himalaya episode also features animals, along with the people comprising remarkable ancient cultures. One exciting sequence follows Nepali ultrarunner Mira Rai through a race. (Mira is featured in the May 2017 issue of Outside Magazine, and will be running one of the UTMB races in Chamonix this week.) For more on the episode, including clips and updated information, check the BBC website: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b094klt5>

Details on the final episode airing 13 September have not yet being released. This post will be updated when they are - for it includes a sequence on our work at Quelccaya.

Unfortunately for North Americans, BBC TWO is not available. There will be rebroadcasts by PBS, but dates are not yet available.

Fieldwork at Quelccaya, April-May 2016

We returned recently from an exciting 19 days of fieldwork at Quelccaya. The expedition was timed to coincide with the conclusion of the wet season following the very strong 2015-16 El Niño, and we gained considerable new information. Specific objectives related to this anomalous year included:  AWS data recovery and annual instrument maintenance; snowpit measurements and sampling for chemical analyses; and both GPS mass balance and ice margin measurements. We also had an opportunity - which for over a decade was only a dream - to spend time learning about and documenting breeding behavior of the White-winged Diuca-Finch. This species is among the highest-elevation nesting birds of the Western Hemisphere, and is the only species known to build nests on glaciers (see here for background, soon to be updated); our recent observations yielded a wealth of new understandings. As always, Vicencio Expeditions provided fantastic logistical support, allowing our team of 5 to work safely and efficiently. Below is a quick collection of images documenting some of our observations.

Fig. 1 (above):  Quelccaya Ice Cap's western margin, at which our group spent 2+ weeks during April and early May. Note that the transient snowline is already at nearly 5500 m, due to low accumulation and warmth during the strong 2015-16 El Niño. Qori Kalis outlet glacier is partially visible towards the left side of the image; our efforts on this trip were concentrated at the outlet glacier just right of center.

Fig. 2:  Alipampa Camp at the end of the road (4765 m), where we spent 2 nights acclimatizing. Snowfall overnight was somewhat unexpected.

Fig. 3:  More snow, three mornings later, at Moraine Camp (~5200 m). Note frozen lake, as well as people and horse for scale.

Fig. 4:  Quelccaya margin just south of the figure 1 panorama. Tiny patches of new snow are visible on the otherwise-dark ablation zone of the lower ice tongue. This low-albedo surface absorbs roughly half of the solar radiation incident upon it on sunny days, becoming a maze of tiny meltwater runoff channels.

Fig. 5:  Qori Kalis outlet glacier, which has thinned dramatically in recent years - yet still extends into the lake.

Fig. 6:  Mountain Guide Benjamin Felix Vicencio gets an overview of Qori Kalis.

Fig. 7:  After several snowy days initially, high pressure built in over Quelccaya, resulting in extensive melting at all elevations on the glacier. Meltwater production led to hours of repeated calving at this ice face, filling part of the lake with ice fragments.

Fig. 8:  Meltwater runoff from the ice margin (above rocks in this view) brought greater discharge to many streams than we had seen previously.

Fig. 9:  Evidence from one of the runoff channels of high discharge during the wet season; these are roots from a plant which had become established near the stream.

Fig. 10:  At the summit AWS, Felix is always eager to help. For the past 12 years, the station's enclosures have been buried upon our dry-season arrival. During the current El Niño event, accumulation was much lower than normal. Indeed, at the end of April - with potentially 6-7 months of ablation ahead before the next wet season - accumulation (w.e.) was less than any other year of the 2003 ice core record since at least the late-19th century*! We will soon provide more details of this extreme situation.

[*Caveats to this statement are required. Current accumulation is based on the amount present on 2 May 2016, above the 2015 dry season surface (water equivalence). This may under-estimate accumulation if a greater-than-normal proportion of precipitation was in the form of rain and percolated completely through the annual increment. Under-estimation could also occur if a greater proportion of meltwater percolated completely through, rather than refreezing within 2015-16 accumulation. However, the accumulation present in early May has always been less than that preserved when the subsequent wet season begins (due, for example, to dry-season sublimation).]

Fig. 11:  The outlet glacier just above our camp, where a major focus of the most-recent expedition was to study the breeding of Diuca speculifera or White-winged Diuca-Finch - the "Glacier Bird of the Andes".

Fig. 12:  Four intensive days were spent searching for active nests, which diucas build directly on glacier ice in well-protected, hidden locations (earlier, initial details here).

Fig. 13:  Locating active nests of any bird species requires patience and astute observation skills. Extra motivation is required to do so in the snow at elevations above 5000 meters.

Fig. 14:  Two key members of the nest-searching team. All bird observations throughout the entire expedition are available in eBird (~50 spp. from >4800 m).

Fig. 15:  An adult Diuca speculifera seeking insects on floating ice fragments (see lake in figs 7 & 11).

Fig. 16:  At the site of one diuca nest, high on a 60-meter cliff face. Ideally - as in this case - the birds choose nest sites which are safe from predation (esp. Fox, Pseudalopex culpaeus and Mountain Caracara, Phalcoboenus megalopterus) and offer thermal protection (esp. heat loss by longwave radiation). The actual nest site here is ~2 m to the right of the person.

Fig. 17:  A juvenile diuca begging for food from a parent.

Fig. 18:  Tremendous biodiversity exists in Cordillera Vilcanota. Here a lizard basks in the sun adjacent to glacier ice (background), an atypical environment for most lizard species.

Fig. 19:  Quelccaya margin just south of the section we concentrated on this time. A decade ago this margin was also a steep cliff, with numerous diuca nests every year. However, over the past 30 years our measurements with Dave Chadwell (Scripps & UCSD) document that the glacier in this area has thinned by more than 60 meters (paper in review). Where will diucas nest in the future, as recession of the ice cap accelerates and suitable locations disappear?

Fig. 20:  Sunrise on Nevado Ausangate, highest peak of the Cordillera Vilcanota (6384 m).

Fieldwork - June 2015

Back to Quelccaya! Earlier this month we spent a couple weeks on and around the ice cap, continuing climate system research. We began the expedition as a large group with a diversity of backgrounds and interests; lots of interesting discussions ensued, while hiking and during meals. Here are some images from the adventure.

Austral winter in the Cordillera Vilcanota is typically cold and dry, with stable weather ideal for conducting fieldwork on Quelccaya. This is not how June began this year, however, as late-season snowfall during April and May continued (see 4 May entry). Here we are looking north over fresh snowcover toward Qori Kalis outlet glacier (not visible). Strong convection is already underway by 10 AM, which brought snow squalls during the afternoon. At the summit a week later we attributed ~90 cm of snow to late accumulation.

Most of the group arrived at Moraine Camp during a heavy precipitation event on the afternoon of 2 June. For more than 2 hours, large grains of graupel pelted us, driven by wind and accompanied by lightning and thunder. One lightning strike was particularly impressive (and frightening), striking a path below camp. Later we learned from our arrieros (see below) that lightning has been unusually prevalent this year, killing numerous alpaca and at least one person.

More than 40 years after his first expedition to Quelccaya Ice Cap, Lonnie Thompson was delighted to be back in 2015. Once again, he carried out a full schedule of photographing the margin, searching for old in-situ plant material emerging from beneath retreating ice, visiting Qori Kalis, and collecting snow and firn at the summit to extend his ice core record. The approach to Quelccaya is now considerably shorter than it was in 1974, yet Lonnie confirms that the partial pressure of oxygen at 5,700 m hasn't gotten any higher!

Collaborating with David Chadwell (UCSD & Scripps) we continue to quantify the magnitude of thinning at Quelccaya since 1983, when Dave worked with Henry Brecher to carefully survey the glacier. Above, Carsten Braun is making a geodetic-quality GPS measurement at one of our reference stations, prior to re-visiting numerous sites on the glacier where elevation is accurately known from the 1983-84 measurements. A manuscript detailing this work will be submitted shortly.

The majority of our time at Quelccaya was occupied by raising the AWS tower, to accommodate the summit's positive mass balance. Working together with Carsten as well as Koky Castañeda through most of 6 days we performed a complete annual service and raised everything by over 3 m. In this upward-looking view (note wind sensor), only a final trimming of guy cables and bundling of sensor leads remains to be done.

The AWS is ready for another year of measurements. One of this year's most-difficult tasks was adjusting the tower orientation to account for glacier flow. Notice how the lowest section of the tower appears tilted? It is indeed, because the tower extends another 25 m beneath the surface! Although the station is located more-or-less at the ice cap summit, where the flow vector is essentially vertical, enough differential horizontal motion has occurred since 2003 that keeping the tower plumb is not a trivial task.

Felix, Koky, and Theodoro in the snowpit, approaching 3 m depth. Here, density measurements and snow samples have been collected in the upper portion, from the shaded south-facing wall (for stable isotopes, black carbon). Just coming into view behind Theo in the deepest section is the 2014 dry-season surface. This marks the beginning of 2014-15 accumulation, and this year the 'surface' was more of a 'zone' than normal, because there was not a prolonged interval without snowfall.

Late afternoons were often spent at the glacier margin not far from camp, observing bird behavior and searching for nests used during the prior breeding season. Note the faintly-visible nest within the cavity below Koky (used by Diuca speculifera; more here). At the time this nest was occupied it was likely even more recessed from the vertical ice face, so protected from weather and relatively safe from both terrestrial predators (e.g. foxes) and from those above (e.g., Mountain Caracara, Phalcoboenus megalopterus or Aplomado Falcon, Falco femoralis).

The vicuña population near Quelccaya has increased tremendously in the past decade (Vicugna vicugna). Groups are frequently seen and heard in the area, right up to the glacier margin.

April snow [updated]

After modest snow accumulation during February and March, April 2015 snowfall at Quelccaya was more typical of the core wet season months. For our 11-year period of record, the median height change during April is 12 cm. However, this year's April snowfall was 460 percent of the median, at 55 cm. This is nearly three times that of the next "snowiest" April (2007) and in 2 of the 11 years there was net ablation during April.

Change in surface height only equate with accumulation in water equivalent if densities are equal, yet our experience indicates that snow density is quite consistent at Quelccaya. Next month we will be on the ice cap to measure density profiles, among other tasks, and will have a more accurate measure of accumulation.

The Landsat image above (23 April) illustrates widespread snowcover on the landscape around Quelccaya above ~4,700 m. Our fieldwork beginning later this month will focus on the area within the red ellipse shown on the image, primarily above 5,200 m. Credit:  USGS EROS data center

[UPDATE 5/20:  Accumulation continues! As of 18 May, a mid-month snowy interval was underway, bringing total accumulation for 2014-15 to exactly the median for the date, at 2.05 meters. One-third of the wet-season snowfall has occurred since the end of March, which is unusually late to have so much snow. We will be on the glacier at the end of the month, and will provide an update towards the end of June.]

Margin retreat

Looking through images of "North Lake" recently, this one caught my eye. It was taken on 7 July 2013 while climbing up to the ice cap margin. The view is towards the NW, with ice from the north side of Qori Kalis valley visible in the upper right-hand corner. Note that much of the lake surface is frozen, which is typical during the dry season when air temperature is lower and clear sky at night allows radiational cooling. In the portion of the lake barely visible to the right, blocks of ice were strong enough (for Carsten) to walk out onto.

Prior to ~1985 this lake did not exist, having been buried beneath ice cover for 4,700 years (Thompson et al., 2013). As the margin retreated, meltwater was impounded by bedrock which is out of view to the left, and lake formation almost certainly hastened ice retreat. Now note the section of ice within the blue ellipse above, and try to find it here:

This image is a different perspective, a wider field of view (81°) from the peninsula of bedrock just beneath the blue ellipse. It was taken only 15 months later, on 13 October 2014, and a large volume of ice is gone entirely! Here is part of this section in 2012, with a person for scale. This lower image can be explored in greater detail here, and the GigaPan below provides yet another perspective on the lake, also from October 2014.

Retreat of the glacier will likely continue this year, and soon, the margin will no longer be in contact with the lake. Within the past few decades, a series of proglacial lakes have similarly formed in the area due to ice retreat, including the well-documented Qori Kalis, and several others. Efforts continue to understand the rate of ice-volume change underway, as well as the implications for natural and human systems.

AWS moonshadow

The image above isn't likely to win any contests; the beauty of this shot is that it captures a night-time moment at the automated weather station, when we were thousands of kilometers away. This is one of over 7,000 images acquired during a 15 month interval at the Quelccaya AWS by a Pentax K100D Super camera, in an early version of a Harbortronics Time-Lapse system. It nicely demonstrates one of the ways that modern automated stations can include more than sensors making basic weather measurements.

The enclosure is installed looking toward the west, with a fixed field of view. About half of each scene shows the sky (i.e., clouds and all the information they convey about the atmospheric state), while the lower half illustrates the glacier surface, providing information such as snowfall timing, magnitude, subsequent wind re-distribution, and surface texture (see above). In addition, the foreground - only 75 cm from the camera - depicts sections of the tower, a guy cable, the GOES antenna, and a solar panel. Rime ice is easily observed here, during conditions when it develops. Remarkably, both distant and nearby elements of the image are almost always in focus!

This particular photo from 19:05 on 11 July is noteworthy because the only source of light was from a nearly-full moon, rising through clear sky to the east behind the camera. Faintly visible in the western background is a band of clouds; on the right-hand side a mountain in the Cordillera Vilcanota can be seen, ~50 km distant. On the foreground snow is a shadow of the AWS, clearly showing (left to right) an ultrasonic snow sensor, the big Met One T/RH radiation shield, and the RM Young Wind Monitor. EXIF data indicate the shutter speed was 6 seconds, with the aperture at f/4.

Our initial use for this set of hourly images is in aiding quality-control of snowfall measurements. Thanks to two different ultrasonic sensors on this station, raw measurements are usually unambiguous after adjusting for air-path temperature. But sometimes, it can be difficult to assess whether measurements recording a surface height increase are due to a snowfall event, re-distribution of previously-fallen snow, or something rare and unrelated to climate (e.g., jiggling of the tower as accumulation settles).

Getting the time-lapse system to this point hasn't been without frustration, but the result is proving both useful and interesting!

April in the Cordillera Vilcanota

The dry season is an ideal time for fieldwork on Quelccaya Ice Cap, when humidity is low, the atmosphere is stable, and intense solar radiation compensates for annual air temperature minima. Since installing the summit AWS, this is the time of year when we have serviced the station and made snowpit measurements (i.e., June or July). Although weather during our fieldwork has varied considerably from year to year, visiting exclusively during the dry season has provided an incomplete - even biased - perspective on Quelccaya climate.  AWS measurements, of course, demonstrate all the seasonal cycles and patterns, yet cannot substitute for the subjective impressions one gains by actually observing and experiencing weather; both are essential in advancing the understanding of a location's climate.

Recent fieldwork has provided a new perspective on seasonal variability, as a component of NSF-sponsored research with Mathias Vuille & John Hurley (University at Albany, SUNY) examining the South American Summer Monsoon. Our new study is combining onsite measurements, the high-resolution ice-core record, and isotope-enabled model simulations to reconstruct monsoon variations upstream over the Amazon basin for the past millennium.

The images below provide an overview of our most-recent fieldwork, conducted during the transition from a particularly moist wet season to the 2014 dry season.  After two days acclimatizing at ~4,900 meters elevation, we moved up to a camp near the ice cap margin at 5,200 m for a week. Three days were spent at the summit (5,680 m), collecting AWS measurements, servicing the station, measuring and sampling snow for stable isotope and black carbon analysis, and collecting air samples for stable isotope analysis of water vapor (deuterium). Assisting in every aspect of the effort were Felix Benjamín Vicencio and Koky Casteñeda, both among the most-experienced Peruvian mountain guides (AGMP-UIAGM).

In a word, "moisture" was the most-different aspect of the Quelccaya environment in April compared to the dry season. Most obvious were more-numerous streams draining down into flooded, verdant bofedales (wetlands) which were alive with birds and insects, yet the difference in atmospheric humidity was so pronounced that it could be both felt and seen. During the day, visibility (transmissivity) was reduced, towering convection resulting from instability led to near-daily snowfall (esp. graupel), and intervals of solar radiation provided welcome warmth. At night, higher humidity and cloud cover kept the net longwave radiation balance much higher, with notably higher overnight air temperature than during the dry season.

Relative to mid-latitudes, the seasonal air temperature difference at Quelccaya is minor (1-2° C range in mean monthly values), yet at these high-elevations close to the freezing point, the biotic impact appears to be amplified. For example, we observed that the breeding season was underway for many resident bird species during this transitional time. We previously speculated that this might be the case (see here for link to paper) and on this trip we documented breeding by several species. Among our most-exciting discoveries in this realm was the first-ever documentation of an active Diuca speculifera nest, the only bird species known to successfully nest on glaciers (see photo below).

Other results from Quelccaya fieldwork in April will emerge in the months ahead. However, our initial measurements and observations raise concerns about the continually increasing atmospheric freezing level, as well as future changes in monsoon characteristics - both associated with enhanced greenhouse gas concentrations.

Figure 1 (above). Snow-covered landscape of the Cordillera Vilcanota at ~5100 m, slightly below our camp. Note lake, and bofedale in foreground.

Figure 2 (above).  Fresh snow and a small stream in the area around camp at 5200 m, burying all but seed heads of the grass Calamagrostis chrysanth.

Figure 3 (above).  Horses and the Condori family helping to transport equipment down from the glacier (visible in background). In these difficult conditions, we were humbled by their mental and physical toughness, ascending to our camp at dawn - during a snowstorm - wearing rudimentary open-toed sandals. One of the women is carrying her one-year-old (yellow hat) in addition to an even-larger bundle of other items.

Figure 4 (above).   Quelccaya AWS after ~3 m of snow accumulation during the 2013-14 wet season, with our snowpit in background. Note convection to the northeast over Amazonia.

Figure 5 (above).   Snow accumulation for 2013-14 amounted to 2.92 m on 28 April, with 5-10 cm additional early on the 30th. A continuous, 10-cm interval density profile was measured with a 1000 cm^3 Snowmetrics cutter (shown), and 2 sets of snow samples (50 mL tubes at left) were collected and kept frozen during transport.

Figure 6 (above).   One of two active bird nests discovered during fieldwork, the first conclusive evidence of nest building on a glacier by Diuca speculifera (White-winged diuca-finch). Two nestlings were present in this nest, which was completely protected from precipitation and longwave energy loss. Within a crevasse 6-8 m above the ground and accessible only with modern ice-climbing equipment, it was also safe from predators.

 Figure 7 (above).   Evening light on polished bedrock (ignimbrite) at the margin of Quelccaya Ice Cap, 5300 m.