Hydropower production (HP) in high mountainous areas relies on snow- and glacier melt influenced water resources and is thus highly sensitive to climate warming. Based on the case of Switzerland that produces over 50% of its electricity from hydropower, we ...
Glacier retreat as a consequence of climate change influences freshwater ecosystems in manifold ways, yet the physical and chemical bases of these effects are poorly studied. Here, we characterize how water temperature differs between alpine lakes with and ...
For more than a decade, scientists have argued about the warmth of the current interglaciation. Was the warmth of the preindustrial late Holocene natural in origin, the result of orbital changes that had not yet driven the system into a new glacial state? ...
Polar ice sheets and mountain glaciers, which cover roughly 11% of the Earth's land surface, store organic carbon from local and distant sources and then release it to downstream environments. Climate-driven changes to glacier runoff are expected to be lar ...
Snow deposition and redistribution are major drivers of snow cover dynamics in mountainous terrain and contribute to the mass balance of alpine glaciers. The quantitative understanding of inhomogeneous snow distribution in mountains has recently benefited ...
The distribution of terrestrial surface runoff to Ilulissat Icefjord, west Greenland, is simulated for the period 2009-13 to better emphasize the spatiotemporal variability in freshwater flux and the link between runoff spikes and observed hydrographic con ...
Recent warming has had enormous impacts on glaciers and high-mountain environments. Hazards have changed or new ones have emerged, including those from glacier lakes that form as glaciers retreat. The Andes of Peru have repeatedly been severely impacted by ...
The transition from the last glacial and beginning of BollingAllerod and Pre-Boreal periods in particular is marked by rapid increases in atmospheric methane (CH4) concentrations. The CH4 concentrations reached during these intervals, similar to 650750 ppb ...
Climate change is clearly discernible in observed climate records in Switzerland. It impacts on natural systems, ecosystems, and economic sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and energy, and it affects Swiss livelihood in various ways. The observed and pr ...
A numerical model to compute the dynamics of glaciers is presented. Ice damage due to cracks or crevasses can be taken into account whenever needed. This model allows simulations of the past and future retreat of glaciers, the calving process or the break- ...