## 5 Conclusions  
1. The process of deglaciation in the studied area has been observed since the 1950s, but until the 1980s, the rate of change was not significant to the ecosystem. The observed changes in glacier extent over the last three decades indicate an ongoing process of deglaciation throughout ASPA-128, with an average loss in the glaciated area of \(-0.277\) km\({}^{2}\)/year for 1979-2011. In 1979, within the studied area, 19.8 km\({}^{2}\) was glaciated and 6.2 km\({}^{2}\) (31.3%) became ice-free in 2018. As a result, large ice-free areas have appeared along the glacier fronts. The convergent oscillation of the rate of glaciers retreat in the same time periods (for example, the fastest retreat in 1990s) demonstrates that the entire Warszawa Icefield glacial system responds rapidly to climate fluctuations and is sensitive to climate change. The important finding of our study is that glacier retreat between 1979 and 2011 in the eastern part of the Warszawa Icefield was increasing, with the exception of the period between 2001 and 2007 when the tempo was reduced. However, in the last 7 years, the glaciers' retreat rates have clearly decreased.
2. The PDD values well matched the observed retreat rates for the studied intervals and, therefore, the surface melting was interpreted to be the key contributor to glaciated area loss for land-terminating glaciers. The increase in PDD and the resulting ELA increase contributed to the degradation of small clique glaciers located below 250 m a.s.l. in ASPA-128. The PPD sums act as the only analysed weather indicator that is correlated with the observed decline in the rate of glacier retreat in recent years (2011-2018).
3. Large areas in ASPA-128 become ice-free between 1979-2018. These areas are colonized by plants and become nesting and resting areas for birds and sea mammals. Further studies and the monitoring of glacier changes should be continued in order to document the changes of the environment, which are affecting the land and marine ecosystems of Antarctica.  
**Author Contributions:** [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] conceived and designed the experiments; [PERSON] developed climate change description; [PERSON] and [PERSON] analysed the remote sensing data and [PERSON], [PERSON], M.K. analysed spatial data; [PERSON] and [PERSON] contributed background materials; [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] were involved in writing the paper.  
**Funding:** This research was funded by the Polish Committee for Scientific Research (PBZ-KBN-108/P04/2004, CLICOPEN (IPY-34) and the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (NN 306722540 \"Climatological and glaciological interactions in the global warming conditions. Study on the SSSI No 8 King George Island, West Antarctic\").  
**Acknowledgments:** We would like to thank [PERSON], [PERSON] and [PERSON] for their help with editing the English manuscript of this paper. Extended thanks to [PERSON] and [PERSON] for their comments on an early version of manuscript. The Planet satellite images were available thanks to the Planet's Education and Research program.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Figure A1. The length changes of land and water terminating fronts of Ecology, Baranowski and Windy glaciers. They are the largest glaciers supplied directly from the Warszawa Icefield (300-400 m a.s.l.). PlanetScope satellite image (10 March 2018) as a orthophotomap in the background.  
Figure A2: Forefield of the Ecology Glacier (1) and Sphinx Glacier (2), photo bases marked on Figure 5.  
Figure A4: Forefield of the Windy Glacier (5) and the Thawing Glacier (4), photo bases marked on Figure 5.