Methods and Materials

Abstract

Landscape field mapping at a scale of 1:25,000 was the basic method of surveying the study area in the 1980s. Also the extent of the glaciers and their marginal zones as well as the sea coastline was mapped. The interpretation of aerial photographs, including the infrared ones, as well as the analysis of satellite data were combined with the results of field investigations. The following datasets were used in the manual delineation of the extent of each glacier in the chosen years: (1) three sheets of a topographic map 1:25,000, edited by the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1987, (2) a topographic map sheet at a scale of 1:100,000, edited by the Norwegian Polar Institute in 2007, (3) ASTER data with 15-m spatial resolution provided by NASA’s Earth Observing System (EOS), and distributed by the Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LPDAAC), and (4) SPOT 5 Orthophoto with 5-m spatial resolution, acquired on September 1st, 2008, provided by the IPY SPIRIT project. The maps were scanned and georeferenced to a common datum and projection. Changes in glacier surface elevation were estimated using digital elevation models. In the early 1980s, extensive vegetation research was carried out, using the Braun-Blanquet phytosociological method and a detailed vegetation map at a 1:25,000 scale was constructed. To evaluate the speed and direction of possible vegetation changes in the area, the aforementioned research was repeated in 2008. In both studies data were supported by photographs of the main vegetation types and their changes.