Glaciers cover roughly 10 percent of the Earth’s surface and help shape landscapes and relief in high latitude regions and many mountain ranges. Subglacial processes, such as sliding, create material that shapes the landscape. Debris that falls upon the ice, or is entrained in it, is advected down glacier to where it melts out, creating moraines. Existing sediment below the glacier can be mobilized by pressurized subglacial water and is then transported in proglacial rivers or deposited in lakes or fjords. Global glacial retreat is increasingly producing new ice-free areas in various geomorphological settings, from high-mountain valleys to coastal lowlands. The associated losses include decreased provision of meltwater in summer, reduced surface albedo and associated cooling effects, and in some cases increased natural hazards resulting from paraglacial geomorphic processes. However, there may be potential benefits, such as carbon storage in the vegetation, soil development and enlargement of pasture lands in now-exposed glacial sediments. An integrated, multi-disciplinary projection of the future properties and value of deglaciated valleys remains elusive but is necessary as we prepare for an uncertain future under climate change.

This session aims to improve understanding of glacier dynamics, surface processes, soil and plant development in glacial and deglaciating environments, and their interactions. We therefore invite contributions using experiments, modeling, laboratory, field observations and archives or remote sensing methods, or a combination thereof, that evaluate glacial processes, surface processes, soil development, ecological processes and their feedbacks. We welcome submissions that address these processes across a wide range of timescales, from sub-daily to multi-millennial, including those focused on these dynamics during past climate variations. Additionally, we are interested in studies that are focused on diverse glaciated environments from small alpine glaciers to ice sheets, improve methodology, are multidisciplinary or from previously understudied mountain regions – including in the global south. Research that addresses the changes that occur as climate warms and how these processes interact with other aspects of the Earth system, including glacier dynamics, is of particular interest for this session.
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