Geologists have long debated the erosive power of glaciation. At one extreme, glaciers and ice sheets have been viewed as non-erosive protective blankets, while at the other extreme, they are considered among Earth’s most potent erosive forces. As such, the question of whether glaciers or rivers are, on average, more effective erosive agents remains contentious. This problem is further complicated by the “Sadler effect,” which describes how erosion and deposition rates appear to decrease as the timescale of observation increases, posing a considerable challenge for directly comparing glacial and fluvial erosion rates. The Sadlerian dilemma is particularly relevant to discussions of Cenozoic paleoclimate, where intensified erosion due to enhanced glaciation has been argued to be both a cause and consequence of Cenozoic cooling. Here, we present a comprehensive global compilation of glacial and fluvial erosion rates supplemented by simple numerical experiments. Our analysis shows that globally averaged glacial erosion rates surpass fluvial erosion rates by an order of magnitude (0.51 mm/year vs. 0.067 mm/year), a difference that cannot be attributed to the Sadler effect. We further demonstrate that the Sadler effect arises from three distinct biases: a measurement thickness bias (primarily related to the average penetration depth of cosmogenic rays into rocks), an erosion-redeposition bias (reflecting the bidirectional nature of certain geological processes whereby previous progress may be undone), and a non-observation bias (resulting from unobserved erosionally or depositionally quiescent intervals). Taken together, these findings support the notion that erosion rates increased with Cenozoic cooling and glaciation, highlighting the global importance of glacial erosion across diverse timescales.
How to cite: Wilner, J., Nordin, B., Getraer, A., Gregoire, R., Krishna, M., Li, J., Pickell, D., Rogers, E., McDannell, K., Palucis, M., and Keller, C. B.: Global Quantification of Glacial versus Fluvial Erosion Rates: Limits to Timescale Dependence, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-16333, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-16333, 2025.
In steep alpine environments, successive glacial-interglacial cycles during the Quaternary led to multiple transient geomorphological phases. These periods are marked by landscape disequilibrium between the inherited topography and the dominant geomorphological processes. In particular, post-glacial periods are key transition phases experiencing rapid geomorphic changes, characterized by intense hillslope processes where ice and permafrost have shrunk. As landslides are the main post-glacial processes controlling sediment production in steep mountain environments, we approach numerically their late-glacial to interglacial dynamics in re-shaping the alpine topography. In the Ecrins massif (French western Alps), we select three catchments, with particular morphological signatures (i.e. from fluvial to glacial) to explore their associated topographic evolution under landsliding. Using the landscape evolution model ‘Hyland’, we quantitatively assess their individual response to landsliding by exploring the role of different internal or external factors (e.g., bedrock cohesion, return time of landslides). The model is calibrated with the output landslide area-volume scaling law and the massif-averaged denudation rate, known from literature. We focus on the cumulative impact of landslides, during the post-glacial period, on catchment slope distribution, hypsometry, produced sediment volume and erosion rate. Moreover, inherited glacial topography seems strongly sensitive to hillslope processes showing a bimodal distribution of elevation for landsliding for the glacial catchments, both spatially and temporarily. The evolution of the slope-elevation distribution is associated to a lowering in maximum catchment elevations, usually attributed to the glacial buzzsaw. Our modeling results also show a temporal variability in landslide frequency, highlighting a maximum frequency at the onset of the glacial retreat followed by a progressive decay during the interglacial period, despite an inherent variability associated with landslide stochasticity. Thus, the associated landslide erosion rate follows a similar progressive trend. On the contrary, fluvial catchments show more stable topography and less intense landslide activity. Landscape evolution models appear as a suitable tool to reveal the landslide dynamics during the postglacial period and to quantitatively explore the non-linear interactions between landsliding and catchment topographic evolution.
How to cite: Ariagno, C., Steer, P., and Valla, P.: Alpine landslide dynamics and post-glacial topographic reshaping, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2762, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2762, 2025.
Glaciers serve as markers of climate change; however, they can also respond to other events, e.g. large mass movements. Instances of large supraglacial landslides have been documented from across all major mountain ranges of the world. Despite the large number of such events, quantitative data on glacier response to debris loading by landslide remains limited and highly incoherent. The absence of a uniform standard to report quantitative data on glacier behaviour complicates data interpretation. This study aimed to conduct an extensive literature review to compile an inventory of landslide-affected glaciers for which quantitative data are available. The generated database standardised reported data, bringing them to the same units to enable data comparison for different glaciers. The study also discussed data and methods used to obtain quantitative data and propose the most effective workflows to derive each parameter.
Glacier response to a sudden delivery of a large quantity of debris by a landslide can include a change in ice flow velocity (acceleration or deceleration) and/or change in ablation rate, which, in consequence, can lead to mass balance modification and glacier advance. These changes can be quantified by measurements of several parameters, the most common of which are ice velocity, ice thickness, ablation, mass balance, volume, and terminus position. Based on the literature review, we were able to find only 22 glaciers for which at least some quantitative data were available on glacier response to the landslide event. Quantification of ice velocity change was the most common (available for 15 glaciers), followed by measurements of terminus position (12 glaciers) and changes in ice thickness (nine glaciers). In most cases, the ice flow velocity after the landslide increased, with the highest values reported for Baltoro glacier (Gardner and Hewitt, 1990), RGO (Stark et al., 2012) and Amalia (Van Wyk de Vries et al., 2022) glaciers. Terminus advance after the landslide was reported for nine glaciers (from 100 to 3200 m) and retreat for three glaciers (300 to 1400 m). The biggest challenges in interpreting the reported data were: different durations of observations, different modes of measurements, and different units.
This research was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, project number 2021/42/E/ST10/00186
References:
Gardner, J., & Hewitt, K. (1990). A Surge of Bualtar Glacier, Karakoram Range, Pakistan: A Possible Landslide Trigger. Journal of Glaciology., 36(123), 159-162.
Stark, C., Wolovick, M., & Ekstrom, G. (2012). Glacier surge triggered by massive rock avalanche: Teleseismic and satellite image study of long-runout landslide onto RGO Glacier, Pamirs. AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
Van Wyk de Vries, M., Wickert, A. D., MacGregor, K. R., Rada, C., & Willis, M. J. (2022). Atypical landslide induces speedup, advance, and long-term slowdown of a tidewater glacier. Geology.
How to cite: Bhattacharyya, A., Ewertowski, M., and Malecki, J.: Quantification of landslide-induced changes in glacier dynamics – literature review, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9614, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9614, 2025.
A better knowledge of sediment transport is needed to understand the distribution of sediments beneath ice, and the signals of cryosphere change that may be detected in glacial sediments deposited offshore. We present here an updated graph-analysis approach to enable further exploration of the sedimentary consequences of hydrological change and allows for a quantitative estimate of water and sediment fluxes in the subglacial environment, and associated basal till evolution and properties, impacting on glacier sliding and hydrogeology processes. The analysis is based on the outputs of physical models, including an ice sheet model output and a subglacial hydrology model output. The approach defines catchment-scale graphs as ‘communities’ of the subglacial hydrology network, from which nested subgraphs are defined optimised to the problem at hand: Such representations greatly reduce the model size and operating in parallel allow efficient development of an ensemble result. The subgraphs may be defined from prior information, such as known catchments, or ad-hoc definition during run-time based on stochastic, probabilistic, or adaptive algorithms. For the subglacial environment the models resolve where sediment is unlikely to be preserved, contrasting with areas of high survivability and deposition. Key properties are defined including thickness of the sediment layer, the grain size of sediment and sediment transport history. These properties may be used to further understand the mechanism of basal sliding and the opportunity for hydrogeological processes. We demonstrate the approach for synthetic examples and catchment-scale studies of real systems.
How to cite: Aitken, A., Delaney, I., Werder, M., Pirot, G., and Hepburn, A.: Harnessing the power of graphs to model subglacial sediment transport networks and basal sediment evolution, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4638, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4638, 2025.
Movement of glaciers over (soft) sediment beds can deform the underlying sediment, transporting it in the direction of glacier flow. This subglacial sediment discharge can vary spatially, leading to net erosion in some areas and deposition in others—stripping some areas free of sediment, while others accumulate thick deposits—thereby forming a diverse array of subglacial landforms. The sediment discharge rules currently employed in landscape evolution models lack an empirical basis, which limits their predictive capabilities. We propose a new sediment discharge rule informed by highly controlled laboratory ring shear experiments, in which sediment discharge was directly measured. In these experiments, a water-saturated sediment layer was placed beneath a rotating ring of ice that was spun at varying slip speeds and effective stresses (N, defined as overburden stress minus water pressure), while sediment deformation was monitored. Sediment did not deform below a threshold speed, which depended on N and the material properties of the sediment. Past this threshold, deformation occurred with a near linear dependence between sediment discharge and ice slip speed, along with a non-monotonic dependence of sediment discharge on N. Specifically, sediment discharge increased with N up to approximately 60 kPa, after which it decreased. This non monotonic relationship arose from the coupling of the viscous ice sole with the sediment bed and the development of force chains within the deforming sediment layer. Considering these different mechanical attributes, we derive a sediment discharge rule that is both simple to implement and physically grounded, depending on effective stress, slip speed and the material properties of the sediment. This new relationship captures a range of dynamic behaviors at low N and can explain observed patterns of subglacial landform formation.
How to cite: Zoet, L., Hansen, D., and Schlegel, R.: A new subglacial sediment deformation discharge rule, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-7452, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-7452, 2025.
By 2100 and due to global warming, 49% to 83% of the world's terrestrial glaciers will disappear depending on which climate trajectory is followed. The resulting proglacial landscapes will create new challenges and opportunities for downstream socio-ecological systems.
In the high Andes, a region inhabited for millennia, glacier retreat exacerbates socio-economic challenges, including risks of species extinction, water contamination from acid rock drainage, slope instability, reduced water availability, glacier lake outburst floods, declines in tourism, and the loss of cultural identity and values. Understanding the mechanisms that drive the development of post-glacial ecosystems is urgently needed in the face of rapid glacial retreat.
These emerging ecosystems, located at the heads of watersheds, play a crucial role in delivering essential services such as water provision, carbon storage, and biodiversity support, benefiting both human and natural systems. To explore these mechanisms, we combined experimental and observational approaches to examine the impact of native Andean camelids on soil properties and vegetation development in four deglaciating landscapes across Peru and Bolivia.
Our research included a camelid inclusion experiment in the Cordillera Blanca, Peru, and observational studies conducted in three deglaciating valleys: two in the Cordillera Blanca and Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru, and one in the Cordillera Real, Bolivia. The findings indicate that native Andean camelids contribute to the formation of novel proglacial ecosystems by creating nutrient-rich hotspots and promoting seed dispersal.
This regional study provides robust scientific evidence that rewilding with native Andean camelids can support adaptation to glacier retreat. It underscores the potential of nature-based solutions to mitigate both ecological and socio-ecological impacts of climate change. Furthermore, conservation policies and management practices that recognize the role of these animals in proglacial areas could significantly influence ecosystem resilience and response to a warming climate.
How to cite: Zimmer, A., Anthelme, F., Beach, T., Meneses, R. I., Rivas Regalado, S., Salcedo Aliaga, J., and Velit, A. C.: Andean camelids as engineers of novel proglacial ecosystems, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-21905, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-21905, 2025.
The Arctic is currently experiencing warming at much higher rates when compared to the global average, which has led to rapid changes within the cryosphere, including glacial retreat and permafrost thaw. These climate-induced processes are transforming proglacial environments, with ice-cored moraine thaw driving rapid landscape evolution. Although topographical changes caused by thawing ice-cored moraines have been studied in the Arctic, there is a lack of ice-cored moraine studies in central Spitsbergen. In this study, we present Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-derived models of two glacial forefields in central Spitsbergen, Scott Turnerbreen (STB) and Longyearbreen (LYB), where six aerial photogrammetric surveys were flown over the course of three weeks, providing a high temporal resolution for three specific Retrogressive Thaw Slumps (RTS) and the forefields themselves. Previous aerial imagery captured in 2018 and satellite imagery gathered from 2014 allow for a greater range of temporal frequencies. Furthermore, using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), sites that experienced movement, as observed from the aerial surveys, were tested to determine if the cause of movement could be directly correlated to the melting ground ice. STB saw a loss of 67350m3 since 2018, with one-third of that volume loss being attributed to the three RTSs observed in this study. Since 2018, the LYB has lost 115,252m3 in volume, almost double the amount observed in STB. This disparity in lost material is evident in the area of the visible RTSs occurring in both study sites, with the LYB being home to an RTS almost 3 times the size of the largest RTS observed in STB. By integrating surface and subsurface analyses, this study provides a comprehensive understanding of ice-cored moraine dynamics under climate change, highlighting implications for geomorphological stability, sediment release, and hydrological systems. These findings emphasize the urgent need for continued monitoring and predictive modelling to assess the persistence of such changes in these Arctic proglacial landscapes.
How to cite: Carson, L. and Moorman, B.: Proglacial Retrogressive Thaw Slumping, Svalbard, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12393, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12393, 2025.
The retreat of glaciers and ice sheets since the end of the Little Ice Age has created proglacial margins, where environmental conditions are initially too harsh for the establishment of higher organisms such as vascular plants. Less sensitive to disturbances and to the lack of resources commonly observed immediately after soil exposure, microbes (e.g. Bacteria, Archaea), however, rapidly colonise these environments. In doing so, they drastically alter soil biogeochemistry and properties. Microbes thus act as key ecosystem engineers, facilitating the development of macroorganisms in proglacial margins. The recent advancement of DNA extraction and metabarcoding along global glacier chronosequences has revealed significant microbial diversity in these ecosystems, with contrasting ecological trajectories over time. This can be attributed to their high sensitivity to changing environmental conditions, alongside time since deglaciation, suggesting a need for multidisciplinary studies to constrain the development of these pioneers. In our study, we evaluate the role of soil microbes as actors in ecosystem development following deglaciation. By collecting soil samples along a high-elevation site in the Southwestern Swiss Alps, we investigated the relationships between microbial community composition and soil biogeochemistry, local geomorphology, and seasonality. With this approach, we constrained the shifts in community composition as time since deglaciation increased, finding that soil biogeochemistry, texture and seasonality are the main drivers of these changes. We demonstrate that microbes are also subject to ecological succession and that environmental factors are essential to explain their ecology. In the context of new ecosystem emergence following accelerated glacier retreat in the 21stcentury, our results underscore the importance of understanding microbial ecology to comprehend the future of these new landscapes.
How to cite: Lardet, F., Maire, C., Berg, J., and Lane, S.: Microbial dynamics in an alpine glacier forefield: Environmental drivers and ecological implications, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5902, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5902, 2025.
Proglacial areas emerge where glaciers retreat as a result of climate change. These ‘natural laboratories’ act as a chronosequence due to glaciers’ steady recession, and are thus ideally suited to study soil formation. We synchronized data from several studies, resulting in 673 soil samples from 29 proglacial areas worldwide. We used Random Forests (RF) to inspect the predictive power of Machine Learning (ML) on topsoil organic carbon. We used 10-fold nested cross-validation to tune the model and to prevent overfitting. 37 different covariates were selected to serve as proxies of soil-forming factors. Among these are variables like the modeled temperature and precipitation to reflect climatic conditions, and geomorphological indices like the slope to reflect relief. These covariates were either measured in situ or, in majority, derived from globally available (satellite) data. The remotely sensed covariates were retrieved from open-source data through Google Earth Engine. We also analyzed how ML models perform when supplied with different subsets of covariates grouped by their associated soil-forming factor. Additionally, we conducted analyses where we left out whole areas or even regions to inspect the applicability of ML models on other proglacial areas worldwide.
The RF model with all covariates had an R² of 0.5, thus only weakly explaining the variation in topsoil organic carbon. The performance of the models where subsets of all covariates were used did not decline much. By employing Shapley values, an interpretive ML method, we revealed that NDVI and Age have the largest influence on topsoil OC content. However, the relations between covariates and the topsoil organic carbon remain complex, as is shown by the small differences in variable importance and changes in importance when certain variables are omitted. Site-specific Shapley values suggest differences in local and global drivers of SOC sequestration. Relief variables for example have a substantial effect when we consider individual areas, but climatic variables are more important within a global scope. Although Shapley values cannot guarantee a direct cause-and-effect relationship of soil forming factors and topsoil OC content in proglacial areas, they clarify the positive effect of using variables such as NDVI and Age within an ML framework and help to gain insight beyond prediction.
How to cite: van Rooij, C., Heuvelink, G., Temme, A., van Grinsven, S., and Mulder, T.: Modeling topsoil organic carbon in proglacial areas worldwide using interpretive machine learning, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-9808, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-9808, 2025.
Glacier retreat in high mountain regions is accelerating globally due to anthropogenic climate change, yet the implications for ecosystem services in newly exposed landscapes remain underexplored. While much of the research has focused on glacier retreat’s impact on vegetation and soil succession, its effects on the provision of ecosystem services, particularly in proglacial environments, have received less attention. This study systematically reviews the literature to identify the ecosystem services mediated by plant communities and soils in post-glacial ecosystems, and to assess how glacier retreat influences these services. Our findings reveal both the loss and gain of multiple ecosystem services, with a particular focus on their spatial distribution within proglacial landscapes. We identify over ten distinct soil-plant mediated services, including natural hazard mitigation, slope stability, climate regulation, air quality improvement, and nutrient cycling. These services show contrasting trends in relation to glacier retreat, underscoring the complex interaction between glacial processes and broader ecosystem functioning. This review highlights the need for a multidisciplinary approach that integrates geological and ecological perspectives, emphasizing the role of ecosystem services in guiding conservation and land-use planning in rapidly changing mountain regions. It further underscores that glaciers play a crucial, multifaceted role in maintaining ecosystem stability and the provision of critical services, far beyond their physical presence as ice masses.
How to cite: Velasquez, L., Morán Ordóñez, A., and Losapio, G.: Beyond Ice: The Role of Glacier Retreat in Shaping Ecosystem Services in High Mountain Regions, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-2460, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-2460, 2025.
Satellite imagery time series (SITS) have become a powerful tool to monitor changes within complex landscapes. Opposed to single snapshots, insights and information derived from SITS expand our knowledge about dynamic processes, such as those occurring in glacier forefields. In recent decades, the decline of glaciers and the related enlargement of glacier forefields have occurred at unprecedented rates, leading to the evolution of new landscapes. For instance, climate change has accelerated the meltwater runoff from glaciers, resulting in the emergence and expansion of drainage systems. This work aims at a spatio-temporal analysis of the evolution of proglacial river courses in glacier forelands for selected areas in the High Tauern mountain range and the Ötztal Alps in Austria. For this purpose, on-demand data cubes based on high-resolution SITS from PlanetScope are created for the focus areas. A machine learning classification of distinct land cover types, focusing on water detection is performed to identify the river course at each timestamp. Ancillary data, such as topography, is integrated into the classification process to enhance accuracy. Further, an analysis of time series trajectories allows the quantification of change per pixel, providing a detailed overview of the evolution of the river courses. These changes are then related to deglaciation processes driven by climatic variations. The results of this study will contribute to a better understanding of how glacier retreat influences hydrological systems in alpine environments, offering valuable insights for future research and environmental management.
How to cite: Abad, L., Hölbling, D., Streifeneder, V., Nafieva, E., Dabiri, Z., and Albrecht, F.: Tracking river course dynamics in Alpine glacier forelands with satellite time series, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-4457, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-4457, 2025.
Estimating the erosive potential of future glaciations is important for assessing the long-term safety of nuclear waste repositories. Of special interest is the formation of tunnel-valleys, glacial erosional features over 500 m deep carved by meltwater channels beneath ice sheets and glaciers. We present a Python modeling framework to estimate tunnel-valley erosion using the erosion and deposition model of Walder & Fowler (1994) in combination with several open-source models and libraries for ice sheet modelling, flexural isostasy modelling, image pattern recognition, and meltwater routing. We showcase how the model works and performs on a synthetic fluvial pre-glacial landscape with a fixed simplified ice sheet configuration. The model works by routing both surface meltwater through simulated moulins in the ice sheet and basal meltwater on the hydraulic potential surface under the ice. The meltwater flow modulates the locations for initial channel incision, wherein the erosion and deposition will be calculated iteratively as the erosion and deposition rate depends on the channel cross-section. The preliminary results of this model show that a steady flux of meltwater from a deglaciating ice sheet can incise tunnel valleys tens of meters deep and several hundred meters wide over a period of hundreds of years. We anticipate incorporating features such as catastrophic lake drainage and an erosion parameter controlled by lithology into the model, as these mechanisms are believed to play a crucial role in the formation of large-scale tunnel valleys.
Walder, J. S., & Fowler, A. (1994). Channelized subglacial drainage over a deformable bed. Journal of Glaciology, 40(134), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.3189/S0022143000003750
How to cite: Jungdal-Olesen, G., Piotrowski, J. A., Pedersen, V. K., Damsgaard, A., Fälber, R., and Winsemann, J.: A Python modelling framework for estimating tunnel-valley erosion under former and future ice sheets, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-5871, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-5871, 2025.
Ongoing climate warming is leading to rapid changes in the Arctic environment, including major changes in the cryosphere. One of the effects of recent rapid retreat of marine-terminating glaciers is the exposure of new coastlines. The calving of such glaciers often produces tsunami-like waves that pose a serious threat to coastal environments. These powerful waves are not only able to shift glacial melange in front of ice cliffs and redistribute icebergs, but also flood and rebuild local cliffs and beaches. We present a multidecadal analysis of changes of the coastal zone in front of the Eqip Sermia glacier (Greenland) and Hansbreen (Svalbard). We provide evidence that calving waves play a important role in transforming the lateral moraine left on shore by retreating glacier into a system of beaches and spits. In case of Eqip Sermia part of the former moraine has been transformed into a boulder-dominated spit that has closed the local lagoon over the years. Even one standard calving wave can remodel the beach surface by entraining boulders up to 1.8 m in diameter and eroding the beach surface by leaching sand and gravel from rocky outcrops. Calving waves produced by Hansbreen are smaller and had more subtle effect on local beaches. Our study represents an important advance towards understanding paraglacial coastal evolution in regions characterised by rapid marine-terminating glaciers’ retreat.
Funding: The research is supported by the National Science Centre in Poland (project: ‘GLAVE- transformation of paraglacial coasts by tsunamis - past, present and warmer future’ No. UMO-2020/38/E/ST10/00042).
How to cite: Kostrzewa, O., Szczypińska, M., Kavan, J., Senderak, K., Novák, M., and Strzelecki, M.: Calving waves impact morphodynamics of Arctic beaches, Greenlandic and Svalbard cases studies, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-6109, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-6109, 2025.
The retreat of glaciers as a result of climate change is increasingly creating proglacial areas in which new soils are developing. These soils can play a key role in the hydrological processes and water regulation of alpine regions. However, the development of hydrologically important properties of proglacial soils remains largely unquantified. In this study, we explore the development of soil-hydraulic properties of proglacial soils over time and the factors that influence this development. We hypothesized that proglacial soils increase their capacity to retain water over time.
For this purpose, twelve soil samples were taken from moraines of different ages and geological compositions from two alpine valleys - the Langtalferner with crystalline till, and the Pazielferner with carbonatic till, both in Austria. Samples were analyzed in the laboratory for their physical and hydraulic properties (dry weight, loss on ignition, grain size distribution). Sample volume was calculated using terrestrial structure from motion photogrammetry before and after sample extraction to determine other properties such as density and porosity. Pedotransfer functions, which are used to mathematically estimate properties that are difficult to measure directly, were used to determine other hydraulic properties such as saturated hydraulic conductivity.
We found that the soil rock fraction is higher in the crystalline till than in the carbonate till. These fractions remained stable with soil age. Organic matter increases significantly in the crystalline Langtal with soil age, while no corresponding increase was found in the carbonatic Pazielferner. We also tested the expectations that a) with increasing soil age the grain size distribution will show a higher proportion of clay and a lower proportion of sand, and b) that the porosity will increase with the rise in clay content to allow greater water retention as the soils age.
How to cite: Nopens, L.-S., Temme, A., Koschmieder, M., and Wild, F.: Development of hydraulic functions in proglacial soils - investigations in two alpine valleys , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11274, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11274, 2025.
Glacier retreats, along with associated geomorphological and periglacial processes, can significantly impact hiking infrastructure and have consequences for the local tourism industry, which heavily depends on high-altitude mountaineering. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) time-series techniques, such as the Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) method, have gained considerable attention for analysing surface deformation and slope instability. InSAR utilises phase information to measure time-series surface deformations with sub-centimetre accuracy.
The primary objective of this study is to identify and measure surface deformation and slope instability using InSAR, and to investigate the potential impacts on selected alpine huts in high mountain regions in Austria. We use time-series Sentinel-1 data and open-source software, including the InSAR Scientific Computing Environment (ISCE) tool for SAR data processing and the Miami InSAR Time-series software in PYthon (Mintpy) for SBAS analysis. By integrating the InSAR results, slope units derived from a high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM), and alpine infrastructure locations, we identify areas showing significant deformation rates. The initial results provide insights into the slope instabilities and surface deformation that may affect alpine infrastructure. The results highlight the potential of advanced InSAR time-series analysis for monitoring surface deformation in highly dynamic alpine landscapes, where increasing natural hazards, such as landslides, necessitate improved natural hazard and risk management. Future steps include discussion and validation of the results in collaboration with experts from alpine associations.
How to cite: Dabiri, Z., Hölbling, D., Nafieva, E., Streifeneder, V., Abad, L., and Albrecht, F.: Glacier retreat and slope instabilities: Impacts on alpine infrastructure assessed through InSAR technique, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-15347, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-15347, 2025.
Global climate change has led to severe glacial retreat in the European Alps over the past 130 years. Glacial retreat leaves behind a mostly barren landscape of rock and moraine material, where it takes decades before plants grow and soils to develop. Before plant communities can establish, certain conditions need to be met. Water retention and nutrient availability are generally limiting seed germination and plant growth. This study tackles the question whether we can accelerate plant growth and soil development in areas close to current glaciers, leading to enhanced carbon dioxide uptake and carbon storage in the soil, transforming proglacial areas to lands that are more functional and productive.
Our overall hypothesis is that it is possible to kickstart plant growth and soil development by transplanting soils and vegetation from nearby vegetated hillslopes, and/or fertilize with local food waste from tourism. The transplantation of soils and compost provides the locations in the proglacial areas with living plants, plant seeds, microbial communities, and carbon and nutrients. We hope this leads to biologically rich hubs from which nearby proglacial locations can be colonized more rapidly. If successful, this can be applied easily, cheaply, and over many glacial valleys.
The proposed natural form of accelerated soil development has three additional advantages beyond capturing carbon from the atmosphere. First, well-developed soils attenuate waterflow out of deglaciated valleys, which prevents drought and reduces floods. Second, better developed soils are biodiversity hotspots. Finally, the barren landscape left behind by retreating glaciers is often unattractive for tourists. Soil and plant development in these areas will thus likely have economic value from the perspective of mountain communities.
We explain in this contribution the activities as planned for the summer of 2025, and invite comments and suggestions.
How to cite: Temme, A. and van Grinsven, S.: Accelerating soil development in proglacial areas by soil transplantation and mountain hut compost fertilization, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18182, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18182, 2025.
Proglacial areas offer valuable insights into soil development in alpine environments and as glaciers retreat due to climate warming, new bedrock is exposed, initiating soil formation. Proglacial areas are dynamic, with soil development influenced by various factors such as glacial retreat, erosion, topographic conditions and geomorphic processes. Understanding these processes is crucial for predicting how soils in alpine landscapes will evolve in response to ongoing climatic changes. Until now, however, our understanding of soil formation processes has been based primarily on point-specific data from samples collected in glacial forefields. To gain a more comprehensive understanding of these processes, we aimed to simulate them across an entire area. Therefore, we developed a new version of an existing soil and landscape model with the objective of enhancing our understanding of soil formation in proglacial areas by simulating the soil development for each pixel of a digital elevation model.
The soil and landscape model LORICA integrates geomorphic and soil-forming processes, enabling a deeper understanding of the spatial and temporal aspects of soil development. In high-alpine regions, geomorphic processes, like water erosion, play a critical role in shaping the landscape and influencing soil formation. To apply LORICA to proglacial areas, a "proglacial mode" was developed using the Bachfallenferner study site in Tyrol, Austria. Existing and self-collected soil samples were analysed to obtain information for the model inputs, like the average grain size distributions. The proglacial mode entails some adjustments to model parameters and incorporates an age raster. The age raster reflects glacial extents since the Little Ice Age, allowing simulations of soil development over selected time periods as the glacier retreats and the proglacial area expands. As a result, during a model run, more and more soil is exposed as consequence of the glacial melting and soil formation begins, reflecting reality. In the proglacial mode, the geomorphic process “water erosion and deposition” and the soil forming processes “physical weathering”, “chemical weathering”, “clay dynamics” and “carbon cylcle” are selected as relevant and the parameters for these processes were adjusted to fit the framework conditions of a glacier forefield. In addition, the proglacial mode accounts for the influence of glacier-derived meltwater on the newly forming soils.
The model, including the proglacial mode, was calibrated using representative soil samples from Bachfallenferner. These field-collected data form the foundation for ensuring the model's accuracy and reliability. By complementing traditional soil-sampling methods, our approach provides a comprehensive, area-covering view of soil development in a dynamic alpine environment and represents the first mechanistic model that can depict the successive development of soil in a glacier forefield.
How to cite: Stoffl, S., Giarola, A., and Temme, A.: As Glaciers Recede, Soils Emerge: Modelling the Dynamics of Proglacial Soil Formation , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11160, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11160, 2025.
Posters virtual: Mon, 28 Apr, 14:00–15:45 | vPoster spot 2
EGU25-12335 | ECS | Posters virtual | VPS25
Monitoring and research on succession in glacier forefields of the Northern Limestone AlpsMon, 28 Apr, 14:00–15:45 (CEST) | vP2.15
Glaciers have retreated since the maximum extent of the “Little Ice Age” around c. 1850. The barren forefields provide a unique opportunity to study the development of an emerging ecosystem from its early stages to better understand successional mechanisms, community assembly and underlying filtering processes. While previous studies have primarily focused on the Central Alps, there remains a knowledge gap regarding succession for the forefields in the Northern Limestone Alps. The aim of this new monitoring platform is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of vegetation dynamics in the context of ecosystem succession in glacier forefields of this region. To this end, the chronosequence approach is applied across four glacier forefields, namely Hallstätter Glacier, Great Gosau Glacier (both in Dachstein mountains, Austria), Watzmann Glacier and Blaueis (both in Berchtesgaden Alps, Germany). Integrated, interdisciplinary methods are used for long-term monitoring and assessment of succession processes. From Vegetation monitoring which follows GLORIA guidelines, selected trait measurements, analysis of ancient DNA pools in ice lake sediments, abiotic site characterization including temperature recording and substrate sampling, to remote sensing methods we want to provide a whole picture of this dynamic environment. First results shows that species richness, abundance increase with age. However, these trends occur at a much slower rate than observed in the Central Alps. Initial trait analyses based on database entries revealed only a few clear patterns along the age gradient. In-depth analyses using trait field measurements are still underway. Additionally, environmental parameters seem to play a role in shaping succession, indicating that abiotic factors may significantly influence the pace and pattern of ecosystem development in the glacier forefields of the Northern Limestone Alps.
How to cite: Hecht, C.: Monitoring and research on succession in glacier forefields of the Northern Limestone Alps, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-12335, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-12335, 2025.
