Snieppets, Environment
RAPID SHRINKAGE
Impacts of glacier mass loss
Researchers have warned of an urgent worldwide need to address a broad spectrum of cascading impacts of glacier mass loss on downstream systems. In their paper, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the authors synthesised currently available evidence and documented the profound impact on freshwater and near-shore marine systems. Glaciers cover close to 10% of the Earth’s land surface but are shrinking rapidly across most parts of the world. Glacier shrinkage will alter sediment transport, and biogeochemical and contaminant fluxes from rivers to oceans. An unexpected impact of glacier shrinkage is the liberation of contaminants including emission products from industrial activity such as black carbon and associated compounds, mercury, pesticides, and other persistent organic pollutants. Though there is uncertainty in the release of these legacy contaminants from glacierised areas, their transport to downstream systems by meltwater will eventually reduce as glacial ice volume shrinks. These effects will profoundly influence the natural environment and the ecosystem services that glacier-fed rivers provide to humans, particularly provision of water for agriculture, hydro-power and consumption. Among the major impacts, there are profound changes to ecosystem function and services via alteredprovision of water resources and reorganisation of …read more