Increased meltwater runoff from glaciers may drive localized ocean acidification and impact carbon dioxide (CO2) uptake in the coastal ocean. However, the paucity of carbonate system observations from continental shelves receiving inputs from glaciers limits our understanding of cryosphere‐ocean connectivity. Here, we contrast meltwater impacts on seawater carbonate chemistry and stable isotopes (δ13C‐DIC) off marine‐ and land‐terminating glacier outflows off Iceland. On the shelf outside a marine‐terminating glacier, glacial meltwater reduced the seawater buffer capacity of receiving surface waters through dilution of total alkalinity, and increased CO2 uptake through salinity‐driven drawdown of pCO2. Primary production acted as a counterbalance to the lowered [TA‐DIC]. On the shelf area receiving meltwater from large glacial river deltas, CO2 uptake was almost halved and the saturation state of aragonite was 0.2 units lower than on the marine‐terminating glacier shelf. Reduced net autotrophy due to higher turbidity and upwelling of low‐pH deep waters off the delta‐dominated shelf likely explain those differences. The diverging carbonate dynamics on the two shelves build on previous observations that land‐terminating glaciers can reduce the buffer capacity as well as CO2 uptake potential of nearshore surface waters in comparison to marine‐terminating glaciers. The future retreat of many marine‐terminating glaciers onto land is likely to modify how meltwater will impact coastal seawater carbonate chemistry.
Ljungberg W., Ulfsbo A., Majtényi‐Hill C., Ruiz‐Angulo A., Yan Yau Y. Y., McKenzie T., Henriksson L., Böttcher M. E. & Santos I. R., 2026. Glacial meltwater impacts marine carbonate chemistry on Iceland’s continental shelf. Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 131: e2025JC023671. doi: 10.1029/2025JC023671. Article.
