Oberes Stubachtal - Austria, Stream gauge Unterer Eisboden See
General Information
UUID
27fa9ae1-1476-4b0a-afb6-2b3054f928e6
Location Type
Description
Lake Unterer Eisbodensee, located in Stubach Valley, Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria, is a good example for one of the most visible consequences of climate change in high alpine areas, i.e. the formation of glacial lakes. The visual appearance of its 1.66 km² catchment has, due to glacier retreat, dramatically changed since the lake first appeared at the terminus of Stubacher Sonnblickkees in 1987.
Repeated terrestrial laser-scanning and bathymetry using dGPS and echo-sounders mounted on an inflatable boat, showed that the lake doubled its surface area to 6,6 ha between 2010 and 2016 and the lake’s calculated maximum extension, based on subglacial DEMs interpolated from GPR data and bathymetry in 2011, has now almost been reached.
During the same time span, the volume almost multiplied fourfold whilst the maximum depth increased from 20.4 m to 27.1 m. The volume of the lake will gradually be reduced by sediment input in the next decades, but due to the gneiss bedrock and the morphology of the catchment, not as fast as other newly-emerged glacial lakes e.g. Obersulzbach See, which first appeared in 1989. Time series from the automatic gauging stations have shown a slight change in discharge and temperature patterns since the beginning of observations in 2002. This is mainly due to a reduced proportion of the glaciated catchment area. In order to investigate alterations in the pristine freshwater system, repeated hydro-biological
probing will be carried out in the future.
Repeated terrestrial laser-scanning and bathymetry using dGPS and echo-sounders mounted on an inflatable boat, showed that the lake doubled its surface area to 6,6 ha between 2010 and 2016 and the lake’s calculated maximum extension, based on subglacial DEMs interpolated from GPR data and bathymetry in 2011, has now almost been reached.
During the same time span, the volume almost multiplied fourfold whilst the maximum depth increased from 20.4 m to 27.1 m. The volume of the lake will gradually be reduced by sediment input in the next decades, but due to the gneiss bedrock and the morphology of the catchment, not as fast as other newly-emerged glacial lakes e.g. Obersulzbach See, which first appeared in 1989. Time series from the automatic gauging stations have shown a slight change in discharge and temperature patterns since the beginning of observations in 2002. This is mainly due to a reduced proportion of the glaciated catchment area. In order to investigate alterations in the pristine freshwater system, repeated hydro-biological
probing will be carried out in the future.