On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps
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...
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Cambridge University Press
2020
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 https://doaj.org/article/ed9b1d0d21e94d84b652e243c949abc2 |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:ed9b1d0d21e94d84b652e243c949abc2 2023-05-15T16:57:35+02:00 On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps Luca Carturan Philipp Rastner Frank Paul 2020-12-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 https://doaj.org/article/ed9b1d0d21e94d84b652e243c949abc2 EN eng Cambridge University Press https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143020000714/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2020.71 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/ed9b1d0d21e94d84b652e243c949abc2 Journal of Glaciology, Vol 66, Pp 1034-1050 (2020) climate change glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 article 2020 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 2023-03-12T01:30:57Z 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 Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Journal of Glaciology 66 260 1034 1050 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
climate change glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
spellingShingle |
climate change glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 Luca Carturan Philipp Rastner Frank Paul On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps |
topic_facet |
climate change glacier mass balance glacier monitoring mountain glaciers Environmental sciences GE1-350 Meteorology. Climatology QC851-999 |
description |
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 |
Luca Carturan Philipp Rastner Frank Paul |
author_facet |
Luca Carturan Philipp Rastner Frank Paul |
author_sort |
Luca Carturan |
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 |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 https://doaj.org/article/ed9b1d0d21e94d84b652e243c949abc2 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Journal of Glaciology, Vol 66, Pp 1034-1050 (2020) |
op_relation |
https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143020000714/type/journal_article https://doaj.org/toc/0022-1430 https://doaj.org/toc/1727-5652 doi:10.1017/jog.2020.71 0022-1430 1727-5652 https://doaj.org/article/ed9b1d0d21e94d84b652e243c949abc2 |
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_ |
1766049148158607360 |