The Hydrologics of Iceland
by Christopher Vogelman
In Iceland, for Sea to Sky 2025, I focused on the variability of stable isotopes (²H, ¹⁸O) within surface waters. The concentrations of these stable isotopes can serve as key tracers of climatic shifts throughout the water cycle. Depending on the influencing environmental factors, such as temperature, precipitation patterns, and water sources, the rate and magnitude at which these isotopes fractionate differ. Therefore, by measuring the concentration and balance of these isotopes, we may begin to uncover new information about an area’s response to climate change. Iceland itself is an area experiencing rapid changes in terms of its climate, from the recession of its glaciers to the warming temperatures of the surrounding Atlantic Ocean. Simply put, adding to our understanding of hydrological dynamics within such a quickly changing environment through sampling waterways was my goal.
Outside of my field area, assembling maps and using spatial data is a common process in my work. When studying a location, it is often customary to begin by gathering a variety of physical information relevant to the area. Visualizing trends, mapping locations, and analyzing results through spatial means is typically a key part of a study. For my Spire artwork, I wanted to demonstrate the factors affecting my research topic, hydrological isotopes in the water cycle, through the lens of spatial data. Therefore, I arranged maps of influencing variables to show what ‘my view’ commonly looks like when studying a location. Data layers of precipitation, visible spectrum imagery, temperature, and topography are displayed, representing the collective information that helps us guide our inferences and decisions.
In terms of my research, previous isotopic sampling of surface waters by Harning et al. twenty years prior offered insight into what to expect for results. I originally hypothesized that Iceland’s glacially-fed rivers should be strongly negative in 18O and 2H values as a result of greater glacial meltwater contributions, likely being more depleted in these isotopes since the early 2000s. After analysis, this hypothesis appeared to be correct as the samples proved to be more strongly negative than the Harning et al. data. These self-collected 2025 river samples are denoted by the larger markers within the isotope data layer, with the findings from Harning et al. shown as the smaller markers. These new findings highlight the continued influence of increasing glacial meltwater on Iceland’s hydrology and demonstrate the value of stable isotope analysis in tracking ongoing environmental change. In the future, with further temporal and spatial sampling of waterways within Iceland and beyond, we can hope to increase our understanding of the current state of our changing climate.
References:
Fick, S. E., & Hijmans, R. J. (2017). WorldClim 2: New 1‐km spatial resolution climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology, 37(12), 4302–4315. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.5086
Harning, D. J., Raberg, J. H., McFarlin, J. M., Axford, Y., Florian, C. R., Ólafsdóttir, K. B., Kopf, S., Sepúlveda, J., Miller, G. H., & Geirsdóttir, Á. (2024). Spatiotemporal variation of modern lake, stream, and soil water isotopes in Iceland. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28(18), 4275–4293. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-4275-2024
Natural Science Institute of Iceland. (2019). Glacial Contours of Iceland, 2019 [GIS dataset]. Lýsigagnagátt – Geospatial Metadata Portal. https://gatt.natt.is/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/1e9d6e87-a1ce-461a-a400-613120db17ad
Natural Science Institute of Iceland. (2019). LMI Height Model 2016, 2016 [GIS dataset]. Lýsigagnagátt – Geospatial Metadata Portal. https://gatt.natt.is/geonetwork/srv/api/records/cb84d208-1b91-4b9e-a21c-93c4e284f488