High-elevation and high-latitude ecosystems are, and will be, particularly affected by the rapid and unprecedent climate warming our planet is currently experiencing, with rates of temperature increase two to four times higher than the global average since the 1980s. In line with these warming trends over recent decades, most plant […]
Read MoreFieldnotes
Impressions, anecdotes and experiences from the field. Authors are beneficiaries of SPI funding. The posts present the authors’ reflections of their field experiences.
Teaching robots to fly on ice – Michael Pantic, Thomas Stastny
Despite their beauty, glaciers can be very hostile environments for us scientists. Crevasses, seracs and other non-traversable terrain renders data sampling for glacier research difficult and dangerous, if not impossible. We believe that unmanned aerial vehicles (“UAVs”, commonly named drones) are key to mitigate this risk and to reach these […]
Read MoreGetting to the root of tundra vegetation dynamics under climate change – Konstantin Gavazov
Tundra ecosystems are characterized by low stature vegetation, which covers the cold polar and alpine soils with dense mats of cryptogams, grasses and dwarf shrubs. Tundra is the area extending beyond the thermal limits of tree growth and reaching up until the permanent snow and glacier fields of the nival […]
Read MoreConsistent water and glacier mass balance measurements in Central Asia (CoWaG) – Eric Pohl
Numerical models for glacier hydrology rely on sound input data for calibration and validation. In particular when upscaling these models for regional-scale assessments of water availability in glacierised catchments, this is of great importance and includes data on various hydrological components, such as rain, snow, ice and permafrost. Understanding which […]
Read MoreExploring evolutionary adaptations during colonisation of freshwater by south Greenland Stickleback – Cameron Hudson
This little fish is what we came here for. All the way from Switzerland to Greenland. I say little, but she is actually rather large for a stickleback. Most are only about 5 cm long and weigh 1.5 g, so at 8 cm this one is a Leviathan. Gasterosteus aculeatus, […]
Read MoreErratic reminiscences of glacial history on Disko Island, Greenland – Gerald Raab
Glaciers and ice sheets are observed to rapidly change under the current global climate conditions. This is particularly the case for those in Greenland. For future projections of change, a long-term, multi-millennial perspective on changes of Greenland ice sheet drainage and local glaciers are of key importance. For example, the […]
Read MoreSediment, Glaciers and Rivers – Ian Delaney
On-going glacier retreat will change the ways glaciers erode bedrock and subglacial water carries sediment below the glacier. Changes to sediment discharge from glaciers in mountainous or inhabited regions such as Switzerland can impact the delivery of sediment to ecosystems, lead to the infill of hydropower reservoirs, and potentially cause […]
Read MoreHI-SLIDE: measuring the sliding of the Greenland Ice Sheet – Andrew Tedstone
Changes in climate affect the sliding of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets towards the oceans in several ways. One is that when surface meltwater accesses the bed of a glacier or ice sheet, it changes the speed at which the ice slides over its bed. The coupling between climate […]
Read MoreArtificial Ice Reservoirs of Ladakh – Suryanarayanan Balasubramanian
For decades, mountain communities have been watching streams run dry as glaciers upstream retreat. Many have been forced to abandon their ancestral land, but some still remain defiant, proactively trying to halt the decline. In a decades-long struggle, local communities have attempted to engineer glaciers – from calving off ice […]
Read MoreSnow-atmosphere interactions in Antarctica – Armin Sigmund
Supported by the SPI, Armin Sigmund joined the Belgian Antarctic Research Expedition organized by the International Polar Foundation (IPF). He spent 19 days at Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA) Station to measure the surface mass balance and associated processes such as snow sublimation (transfer into water vapor) and snow transport by […]
Read More