## 4 Discussion
Increased surface melting in ASPA-128 and the resulting ELA shift towards higher elevations may explain the almost complete disappearance of small cirque glaciers, such as the Thawing Glacier, with a feeding area between 120-200 m a.s.l. Similar observations of the almost complete degradation of small cirque glaciers located below 250 m a.s.l. were reported on the Keller Peninsula near Ferraz Station in Admiralty Bay [11]. Larger land-terminating glaciers in ASPA-128 (for example, Sphinx and Tower glaciers) with feeding areas below 300 m a.s.l., also experienced significant area loss (Figure 6). Correspondingly large decreases in the ice cover were observed 30 km to the east in ASPA-151 (for example, Reference [6] for glaciers fed from the Krakow Icefield (300 m a.s.l.)). As simulated by [PERSON] et al. [8], the small independent ice cap on Bellingshausen Dome (summit at 270 m a.s.l., eastern King George Island) will disappear within the next 300 years under the current climate conditions. The overall results confirm the amplified recession of glaciers on King George Island observed since the 1970s. From 1956 to 1979, the recession of the Ecology Glacier ice cliffs was observed. However, the available data were insufficient to calculate the glaciers' retreat rates. During the 1989-2001 period, the glaciers' retreat rates increased (to \(-0.1\) km\({}^{2}\)/year for land-terminating glaciers and \(-0.11\) km\({}^{2}\)/year for tidewater glaciers) in comparison to the first studied period, causing some nunataks to become connected with glacier forefields in ASPA-128. A decrease in the rainfall and a cyclical occurrence of 'warm' years (average annual temperature above \(-1\)\({}^{\circ}\)C) were frequently observed (Figure 2) as a result of the ELA being lower (Table 2). During the third studied interval (2001-2007), glacier retreat was similar for tidewater glaciers (\(-0.1\) km\({}^{2}\)/year) and much slower for land-terminating glaciers (\(-0.4\) km\({}^{2}\)/year)compared to those observed from 1979-1989. In the period of 2007-2011, the retreat ratios accelerated to \(-0.14\) km\({}^{2}\)/year for tidewater glaciers and to \(-0.8\) km\({}^{2}\)/year for land-terminating glaciers, and then unexpectedly dropped in the last period (2011-2018). Analysing the availability of the data in the conducted research, a clear lack of archival remote sensing materials can be seen for the period after 1979 to 2011 (Table 1). This deficiency was without any detriment to the results of the analyses complemented by field studies carried out in 2001 and 2007. However, high-resolution and high-quality remote sensing materials, available in 1985-1995, would significantly improve the interpretation of the results for this period. This applies mainly to period 2 (1989-2001), in which a sudden increase in the rate of deglaciation of tidewater glaciers and the rapid deglaciation of the area located in the interval of 50-150 m above sea level has been observed for land-terminating glaciers. Unfortunately, public remote data are not available for this period. However, in the period 2001-2018, the rate of deglaciation was analysed in detail, both due to the availability of remote sensing materials, as well as terrestrial measurements. Glaciers of ASPA-128 terminate both on land or in shallow lagoons connected to either Bransfield Strait or Admiralty Bay. Land-terminating glaciers are influenced mostly by atmospheric processes (and, therefore, climate change), whereas tidewater glaciers experience complex and dynamic reactions to both oceanic and atmospheric systems, including ice calving [47]. Therefore, we analysed land-terminating and tidewater glaciers separately. The area loss of land-terminating glacier tongues can mostly be attributed to surface melting. For tidewater glaciers, ablation is dominated by the calving of glaciers, which allows for the faster reduction of glacier mass in comparison with surface ablation [47]. [PERSON] and [PERSON] [48] demonstrated widespread acceleration of tidewater glaciers in the Antarctic Peninsula region.