On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps
Abstract Glaciers in the Alps and several other regions in the world have experienced strong negative mass balances over the past few decades. Some of them are disappearing, undergoing exceptionally negative mass balances that impact the mean regional value, and require replacement. In this study, w...
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Cambridge University Press (CUP)
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143020000714 |
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crcambridgeupr:10.1017/jog.2020.71 2024-03-03T08:46:02+00:00 On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps Carturan, Luca Rastner, Philipp Paul, Frank 2020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143020000714 en eng Cambridge University Press (CUP) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Journal of Glaciology volume 66, issue 260, page 1034-1050 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 Earth-Surface Processes journal-article 2020 crcambridgeupr https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 2024-02-08T08:41:55Z Abstract Glaciers in the Alps and several other regions in the world have experienced strong negative mass balances over the past few decades. Some of them are disappearing, undergoing exceptionally negative mass balances that impact the mean regional value, and require replacement. In this study, we analyse the geomorphometric characteristics of 46 mass-balance glaciers in the Alps and the long-term mass-balance time series for a subset of nine reference glaciers. We identify regime shifts in the mass-balance time series (when non-climatic controls started impacting) and develop a glacier vulnerability index (GVI) as a proxy for their possible future development, based on criteria such as hypsometric index, breaks in slope, thickness distribution and elevation change pattern. We found that the subset of 46 mass-balance glaciers reflects the characteristics of the total glacier sample very well and identified a region-specific variability of the mass balance. As the GVI is strongly related to cumulative glacier mass balances, it can be used as a pre-selector of future mass-balance glaciers. We conclude that measurements on rapidly shrinking glaciers should be continued as long as possible to identify regime shifts in hind-cast and better understand the impacts of climatic variability on such glaciers. Article in Journal/Newspaper Journal of Glaciology Cambridge University Press Journal of Glaciology 66 260 1034 1050 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Cambridge University Press |
op_collection_id |
crcambridgeupr |
language |
English |
topic |
Earth-Surface Processes |
spellingShingle |
Earth-Surface Processes Carturan, Luca Rastner, Philipp Paul, Frank On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps |
topic_facet |
Earth-Surface Processes |
description |
Abstract Glaciers in the Alps and several other regions in the world have experienced strong negative mass balances over the past few decades. Some of them are disappearing, undergoing exceptionally negative mass balances that impact the mean regional value, and require replacement. In this study, we analyse the geomorphometric characteristics of 46 mass-balance glaciers in the Alps and the long-term mass-balance time series for a subset of nine reference glaciers. We identify regime shifts in the mass-balance time series (when non-climatic controls started impacting) and develop a glacier vulnerability index (GVI) as a proxy for their possible future development, based on criteria such as hypsometric index, breaks in slope, thickness distribution and elevation change pattern. We found that the subset of 46 mass-balance glaciers reflects the characteristics of the total glacier sample very well and identified a region-specific variability of the mass balance. As the GVI is strongly related to cumulative glacier mass balances, it can be used as a pre-selector of future mass-balance glaciers. We conclude that measurements on rapidly shrinking glaciers should be continued as long as possible to identify regime shifts in hind-cast and better understand the impacts of climatic variability on such glaciers. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Carturan, Luca Rastner, Philipp Paul, Frank |
author_facet |
Carturan, Luca Rastner, Philipp Paul, Frank |
author_sort |
Carturan, Luca |
title |
On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps |
title_short |
On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps |
title_full |
On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps |
title_fullStr |
On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps |
title_full_unstemmed |
On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps |
title_sort |
on the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the alps |
publisher |
Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022143020000714 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology volume 66, issue 260, page 1034-1050 ISSN 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
op_rights |
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 |
container_title |
Journal of Glaciology |
container_volume |
66 |
container_issue |
260 |
container_start_page |
1034 |
op_container_end_page |
1050 |
_version_ |
1792501841745936384 |