Terrestrial laser scanning to deliver high-resolution topography of the upper Tarfala valley, arctic Sweden

Alpine valleys are experiencing rapidly changing physical, biological and geochemical processes as glacier masses diminish, snowfall patterns change and consequently as hillslopes and valley-floor landforms and sediments adjust. Measurement and understanding of these processes on a valley, landform and surface scale requires topographic data with sufficient spatial coverage and spatial resolution to resolve sources, fluxes and storages of sediment. Most ideally such topographic data will be of a resolution sufficient to resolve important spatial heterogeneity in land cover, topography and surface texture, for example. This study presents the first high-resolution (1 m grid cell size) and freely available topography for the upper part of the Tarfala valley, arctic Sweden. The topography was obtained using terrestrial laser scanning and a bespoke workflow is presented to most efficiently cover a 9.3 km2 area. The unprecedented spatial resolution of this topography, which is 15 times greater than that previously available, reveals a suite of alpine landforms. These landforms span multiple glacier forefields, a variety of bedrock surfaces, various hillslopes and types of mass movement, and valley floor glacial, fluvial and periglacial sediments, for example. Primary and second-order derivatives of this elevation data, and vertical transects are given and will assist future classification of landforms and thus assist future targeted field campaigns. Overall, this study presents (1) baseline data from which future re-surveys will enable quantitative analysis of a dynamic landscape, and (2) an efficient workflow that is readily transferable to any scientific study at any other site. Both of these project outputs will find widespread usage in future alpine studies

Short-term geomorphological evolution of proglacial systems

Proglacial systems are amongst the most rapidly changing landscapes on Earth, as glacier mass loss, permafrost degradation and more episodes of intense rainfall progress with climate change. This review addresses the urgent need to quantitatively define proglacial systems not only in terms of spatial extent but also in terms of functional processes. It firstly provides a critical appraisal of prevailing conceptual models of proglacial systems, and uses this to justify compiling data on rates of landform change in terms of planform, horizontal motion, elevation changes and sediment budgets. These data permit us to produce novel summary conceptual diagrams that consider proglacial landscape evolution in terms of a balance of longitudinal and lateral water and sediment fluxes. Throughout, we give examples of newly emerging datasets and data processing methods because these have the potential to assist with the issues of: (i) a lack of knowledge of proglacial systems within high-mountain, arctic and polar regions, (ii) considerable inter- and intra-catchment variability in the geomorphology and functioning of proglacial systems, (iii) problems with the magnitude of short-term geomorphological changes being at the threshold of detection, (iv) separating short-term variability from longer-term trends, and (v) of the representativeness of plot-scale field measurements for regionalisation and for upscaling. We consider that understanding of future climate change effects on proglacial systems requires holistic process-based modelling to explicitly consider feedbacks and linkages, especially between hillslope and valley-floor components. Such modelling must be informed by a new generation of repeated distributed topographic surveys to detect and quantify short-term geomorphological changes

A global assessment of the societal impacts of glacier outburst floods

Glacier outburst floods are sudden releases of large amounts of water from a glacier. They are a pervasive natural hazard worldwide. They have an association with climate primarily via glacier mass balance and their impacts on society partly depend on population pressure and land use. Given the ongoing changes in climate and land use and population distributions there is therefore an urgent need to discriminate the spatio-temporal patterning of glacier outburst floods and their impacts. This study presents data compiled from 20 countries and comprising 1348 glacier floods spanning 10 centuries. Societal impacts were assessed using a relative damage index based on recorded deaths, evacuations, and property and infrastructure destruction and disruption. These floods originated from 332 sites; 70% were from ice-dammed lakes and 36% had recorded societal impact. The number of floods recorded has apparently reduced since the mid-1990s in all major world regions. Two thirds of sites that have produced > 5 floods (n = 32) have floods occurring progressively earlier in the year. Glacier floods have directly caused at least: 7 deaths in Iceland, 393 deaths in the European Alps, 5745 deaths in South America and 6300 deaths in central Asia. Peru, Nepal and India have experienced fewer floods yet higher levels of damage. One in five sites in the European Alps has produced floods that have damaged farmland, destroyed homes and damaged bridges; 10% of sites in South America have produced glacier floods that have killed people and damaged infrastructure; 15% of sites in central Asia have produced floods that have inundated farmland, destroyed homes, damaged roads and damaged infrastructure. Overall, Bhutan and Nepal have the greatest national-level economic consequences of glacier flood impacts. We recommend that accurate, full and standardised monitoring, recording and reporting of glacier floods is essential if spatio-temporal patterns in glacier flood occurrence, magnitude and societal impact are to be better understood. We note that future modelling of the global impact of glacier floods cannot assume that the same trends will continue and will need to consider combining land-use change with probability distributions of geomorphological responses to climate change and to human activity

A review of glacier outburst floods in Iceland and Greenland with a megafloods perspective

The very largest glacier outburst floods have been termed ‘megafloods’ given their volume and peak discharge. That definition might be revised because those floods have become understood due to their distinctive and pervasive landscape impacts. At least three floods in Iceland can be categorized as megafloods since they produced impressive bedrock canyons and giant fluvially-transported boulders. Glacier lake outburst floods (GLOFs) in Greenland might also have megaflood-type attributes given the enormous lake volumes drained. We therefore here present the first review of glacier outburst floods in Greenland: sites Isvand, Russell Glacier, Kuannersuit Glacier, Lake Tininnilik, two unnamed lakes near Amitsulooq Ice Cap, and Iluliallup Tasersua, Base Camp Lake, Lake Hullett, Qorlortorssup Tasia, Imaersartoq, Tordensø, North Midternæs and an outlet glacier of the A. P. Olsen Ice Cap. Overall, megaflood-type landscape impacts in Iceland tend to be best-preserved and most easily identified inland although there has also been extensive offshore sedimentation. There are very few reported impacts of glacier outburst floods in Greenland. In Greenland ice-dam failure causes frequent flooding compared to the volcanically-triggered floods in Iceland and this combined with the proximity of the Greenland glacier lakes to the coast means that most proglacial channels in Greenland are flood-hardened and most landscape impact is likely to be offshore in estuaries and fjords. Future floods with megaflood-type attributes will occur in Iceland induced by volcanic activity. In Greenland they will be induced by extreme weather and rapid ice melt. Any potential landscape impact of these future floods remains open to question

Multi-Trophic Effects of Climate Change and Glacier Retreat in Mountain Rivers

Climate change is driving the thinning and retreat of many glaciers globally. Reductions of ice-melt inputs to mountain rivers are changing their physicochemical characteristics and, in turn, aquatic communities. Glacier-fed rivers can serve as model systems for investigations of climate-change effects on ecosystems because of their strong atmospheric–cryospheric links, high biodiversity of multiple taxonomic groups, and significant conservation interest concerning endemic species. From a synthesis of existing knowledge, we develop a new conceptual understanding of how reducing glacier cover affects organisms spanning multiple trophic groups. Although the response of macroinvertebrates to glacier retreat has been well described, we show that there remains a relative paucity of information for biofilm, microinvertebrate, and vertebrate taxa. Enhanced understanding of whole river food webs will improve the prediction of river-ecosystem responses to deglaciation while offering the potential to identify and protect a wider range of sensitive and threatened species

Ground-control networks for image based surface reconstruction: An investigation of optimum survey designs using UAV derived imagery and structure-from-motion photogrammetry

The use of small UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) and Structure-from-Motion (SfM) with Multi-View Stereopsis (MVS) for acquiring survey datasets is now commonplace, however, aspects of the SfM-MVS workflow require further validation. This work aims to provide guidance for scientists seeking to adopt this aerial survey method by investigating aerial survey data quality in relation to the application of ground control points (GCPs) at a site of undulating topography (Ennerdale, Lake District, UK). Sixteen digital surface models (DSMs) were produced from a UAV survey using a varying number of GCPs (3-101). These DSMs were compared to 530 dGPS spot heights to calculate vertical error. All DSMs produced reasonable surface reconstructions (vertical root-mean-square-error (RMSE) of <0.2 m), however, an improvement in DSM quality was found where four or more GCPs (up to 101 GCPs) were applied, with errors falling to within the suggested point quality range of the survey equipment used for GCP acquisition (e.g., vertical RMSE of <0.09 m). The influence of a poor GCP distribution was also investigated by producing a DSM using an evenly distributed network of GCPs, and comparing it to a DSM produced using a clustered network of GCPs. The results accord with existing findings, where vertical error was found to increase with distance from the GCP cluster. Specifically vertical error and distance to the nearest GCP followed a strong polynomial trend (R2 = 0.792). These findings contribute to our understanding of the sources of error when conducting a UAV-SfM survey and provide guidance on the collection of GCPs. Evidence-driven UAV-SfM survey designs are essential for practitioners seeking reproducible, high quality topographic datasets for detecting surface change.Nottingham Trent Universit

Alpine river ecosystem response to glacial and anthropogenic flow pulses

Alpine glacier-fed river hydrology, chemistry and biology can vary significantly both in space and over diurnal to inter-annual timescales, as a function of dynamic inputs of water from snow, ice and groundwater. The sensitivity of biota to these water source dynamics potentially makes them susceptible to hydrological changes induced by anthropogenic activities, such as flow regulation, but most alpine studies have focused on intact rivers and during summer only. We examined the patiotemporal dynamics of physicochemical habitat and macroinvertebrate communities in a high (>2000m) altitude floodplain in the European Alps over an 18 month period. A novel insight is presented into the river system and macroinvertebrate community responses to both natural glacier melt driven expansion-contraction of unregulated river sites, and intermittent flow pulses due to hydropower regulation. Mainstem glacier-fed river sites displayed cyclical seasonal dynamics in macroinvertebrate community composition, shifting to be partly reminiscent of groundwater tributaries in winter then back to meltwater again in the following spring. Significant unimodal relationships were observed between glacial influence and macroinvertebrate community density, richness, Simpson's diversity, evenness and beta diversity. These relationships suggest that glacial influence can have positive effects on biodiversity where glacier meltwater mixes with non-glacial water and habitat diversity is maximised. Regulationinduced flow pulses led to inconsistent responses amongst macroinvertebrates, with no significant effects in summer 2008 but increased density and decreased taxonomic richness in 2009. Furthermore, macroinvertebrate community composition was not affected significantly by reservoir releases despite significant increases in water temperature and discharge at these times. The effects of alpine river management for hydropower production on macroinvertebrate communities in this river system appear to be relatively minor, but further studies need to be undertaken in other alpine locations to assess the generality of this finding

Spatial variability in mass loss of glaciers in the Everest region, central Himalayas, between 2000 and 2015

Region-wide averaging of Himalayan glacier mass change has masked any catchment or glacier-scale variability in glacier recession; thus the role of a number of glaciological processes in glacier wastage remains poorly understood. In this study, we quantify mass loss rates over the period 2000–2015 for 32 glaciers across the Everest region and assess how future ice loss is likely to differ depending on glacier hypsometry. The mean mass balance of all 32 glaciers in our sample was −0.52 ± 0.22 m water equivalent (w.e.) a−1. The mean mass balance of nine lacustrine-terminating glaciers (−0.70 ± 0.26 m w.e. a−1) was 32 % more negative than land-terminating, debris-covered glaciers (−0.53 ± 0.21 m w.e. a−1). The mass balance of lacustrine-terminating glaciers is highly variable (−0.45 ± 0.13 to −0.91 ± 0.22 m w.e. a−1), perhaps reflecting glacial lakes at different stages of development. To assess the importance of hypsometry on glacier response to future temperature increases, we calculated current (Dudh Koshi – 0.41, Tama Koshi – 0.43, Pumqu – 0.37) and prospective future glacier accumulation area Ratios (AARs). IPCC AR5 RCP 4.5 warming (0.9–2.3 °C by 2100) could reduce AARs to 0.29 or 0.08 in the Tama Koshi catchment, 0.27 or 0.17 in the Dudh Koshi catchment and 0.29 or 0.18 in the Pumqu catchment. Our results suggest that glacial lake expansion across the Himalayas could expedite ice mass loss and the prediction of future contributions of glacial meltwater to river flow will be complicated by spatially variable glacier responses to climate change

Ice cliff dynamics in the Everest region of the Central Himalaya

The importance of ice cliffs for glacier-scale ablation on debris-covered glaciers is now widely recognised. However, a paucity of data exists to describe the spatio-temporal distribution of ice cliffs. In this study we analysed the position and geometry of 8229 ice cliffs and 5582 supraglacial ponds on 14 glaciers in the Everest region between 2000 and 2015. We observed notable ice cliff and pond spatial coincidence. On average across our study glaciers, 77% of supraglacial pond area was associated with an adjacent ice cliff, and 49% of ice cliffs featured an adjacent supraglacial pond. The spatial density of ice cliffs was not directly related to glacier velocity, but did peak within zones of active ice. Furthermore, we found that ice cliff density was glacier-specific, temporally variable, and was positively correlated with surface lowering and decreasing debris thickness for individual glaciers. Ice cliffs predominantly had a north-facing (commonly north-westerly) aspect, which was independent of glacier flow direction, thereby signifying a strong solar radiation control on cliff evolution. Independent field observations indicated that cliff morphology was related to aspect, local debris thickness, and presence of a supraglacial pond, and highlighted the importance of surface runnel formation, which acts as a preferential pathway for meltwater and debris fluxes. Overall, by coupling remote sensing and in-situ observations it has been possible to capture local and glacier-scale ice cliff dynamics across 14 glaciers, which is necessary if explicit parameterisation of ice cliffs in dynamic glacier models is to be achieved