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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International Glaciological Society
2020
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Online Access: | https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/1/2020_on_the_disequilibrium_response_and_climate_change_vulnerability_of_the_massbalance_glaciers_in_the_alps.pdf https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-190227 https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 |
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ftunivzuerich:oai:www.zora.uzh.ch:190227 2024-09-30T14:37:52+00:00 On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps Carturan, Luca Rastner, Philipp Paul, Frank 2020-12-01 application/pdf https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/1/2020_on_the_disequilibrium_response_and_climate_change_vulnerability_of_the_massbalance_glaciers_in_the_alps.pdf https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-190227 https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 eng eng International Glaciological Society https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/1/2020_on_the_disequilibrium_response_and_climate_change_vulnerability_of_the_massbalance_glaciers_in_the_alps.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-190227 doi:10.1017/jog.2020.71 urn:issn:0022-1430 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Carturan, Luca; Rastner, Philipp; Paul, Frank (2020). On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps. Journal of Glaciology, 66(260):1034-1050. Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Earth-Surface Processes Journal Article PeerReviewed info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2020 ftunivzuerich https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-19022710.1017/jog.2020.71 2024-09-11T00:49:02Z 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 University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Zurich (UZH): ZORA (Zurich Open Repository and Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftunivzuerich |
language |
English |
topic |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Earth-Surface Processes |
spellingShingle |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel 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 |
Institute of Geography 910 Geography & travel Earth-Surface Processes |
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 |
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 |
International Glaciological Society |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/ https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/1/2020_on_the_disequilibrium_response_and_climate_change_vulnerability_of_the_massbalance_glaciers_in_the_alps.pdf https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-190227 https://doi.org/10.1017/jog.2020.71 |
genre |
Journal of Glaciology |
genre_facet |
Journal of Glaciology |
op_source |
Carturan, Luca; Rastner, Philipp; Paul, Frank (2020). On the disequilibrium response and climate change vulnerability of the mass-balance glaciers in the Alps. Journal of Glaciology, 66(260):1034-1050. |
op_relation |
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/190227/1/2020_on_the_disequilibrium_response_and_climate_change_vulnerability_of_the_massbalance_glaciers_in_the_alps.pdf doi:10.5167/uzh-190227 doi:10.1017/jog.2020.71 urn:issn:0022-1430 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-19022710.1017/jog.2020.71 |
_version_ |
1811640651503108096 |