Decadal‐Scale Climate Forcing of Alpine Glacial Hydrological Systems

Lane, Stuart N.; Nienow, Peter

doi:10.1029/2018wr024206

Cited by 41 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Because the majority of ice melt is produced at the glacier surface (Nienow, Sharp, & Willis, 1998), ice melt is driven primarily by solar radiation, temperature, and wind speed (see Fountain, 1996;Nienow et al, 1998;Swift, Nienow, Hoey, & Mair, 2005). Annually, discharge is strongly bound with radiation and temperature variations (Lane & Nienow, 2019;Maizels, 2002). Discharge is low in winter (Maizels, 2002;Malard, Tockner, & Ward, 1999) because the air temperature is below the melting point of ice.…”

Section: Fertilization Of Sediments By Biofilmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Summer experiences the highest discharges because of ice melt (Nienow et al, 1998). Additionally, summertime has intense diurnal flow variations (Lane & Nienow, 2019;Nienow et al, 1998;Swift et al, 2005). The increase in peak daily discharge and in the intensity of diurnal discharge variation through the melt season, which also drives high rates of sediment delivery (Perolo et al, 2019), leads to the morphodynamically most active period.…”

Section: Active Floodplainmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In spring, solar radiation and temperature rise leading to snowmelt. The presence of snow in the basin may attenuate runoff significantly leading to low diurnal flow fluctuations (Lane & Nienow, 2019) with relatively high baseflows. Runoff is typically lower in terms of SSCs, until glacier melt starts.…”

Section: Active Floodplainmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecosystem engineers: Biofilms and the ontogeny of glacier floodplain ecosystems

et al. 2019

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The term “ecosystem engineering” emerged in the 1990s and is commonly used to refer to the activities of larger organisms like beavers and trees in rivers and streams. The focus on larger organisms may be motivated by their more visible effects on the environment. However, while it may be intuitive to suggest that the bigger the organism the bigger its potential engineering effects, there may be microscale organisms who through their number rather than their size can act simultaneously to result in significant impacts. This paper considers biofilms as a candidate ecosystem engineer. It is well known that biofilms play an important role in enriching the sediment matrix of nutrients and in stabilizing sediments. Biofilms may be critical in increasing the habitability of the benthic substratum. In this paper, we consider their potential role in the ontogeny of ecosystems in recently deglaciated terrain. We show how by changing sediment stoichiometry, decreasing sediment erodibility, and reducing surface sediment permeability they may promote primary succession on lateral, incised terraces, which are less perturbed compared with the main active floodplain. This article is categorized under: Water and Life > Nature of Freshwater Ecosystems Science of Water > Water and Environmental Change

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Section: Fertilization Of Sediments By Biofilmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Active Floodplainmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Ecosystem engineers: Biofilms and the ontogeny of glacier floodplain ecosystems

et al. 2019

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“…The result is “hydropeaking” but this is not driven by electricity demand, rather by sediment accumulation in intakes and their capacity to store sediment. Evidence suggests that flushing frequency has increased markedly in Alpine glaciated basins since the middle 1980s (Lane et al, , ; Micheletti & Lane, ), and this follows from both increasing glacier runoff and also increasing the intensity of diurnal discharge fluctuation (Lane & Nienow, ), which lead to an increase in sediment evacuation from underneath glaciers (Perolo et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hydropower Flushing Events Cause Severe Loss of Macrozoobenthos in Alpine Streams

Gabbud

Bakker

Clémençon

et al. 2019

Water Resources Research

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Alpine hydroelectric power exploitation often aims to increase the volume of water stored behind impoundments, which may be achieved through flow abstraction and lateral transfer to storage. Intakes are designed to separate water from sediment which accumulates in settling basins and may be flushed sometimes at subdaily frequencies in glaciated basins. In some countries (e.g., Switzerland) intakes drain a greater basin area than impoundments yet legislation designed to improve instream ecosystems impacted by hydropower has almost entirely ignored them. Some research suggests that such streams have exceptionally low abundance and diversity of macroinvertebrates for some kilometers downstream of the intake flushing at high frequency in summer, but that populations can recover rapidly as soon as flushing frequency decreases in early autumn. However, such patterns could also result from natural flow variability, sediment transport, and morphological change in glacier-fed streams. We combine field measurements with habitat modeling to assess the impacts of sediment flushing on macrozoobenthos as compared to what might be expected in a natural, hydromorphologically dynamic Alpine stream. We show that water abstraction in itself could improve habitat conditions because it increases the relative contribution of less turbid and groundwater/unregulated sources. However, intake flushing leads to short duration, sediment-laden flows that can destabilize substantial areas of the stream bed and cause rates of lateral displacement of habitat much greater than the possible response by macroinvertebrates. Our results challenge current emphasis on minimum flows in such streams and argue that much more emphasis needs to be placed on sediment management.

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“…As such, hydrological regimes which are currently heavily influenced by snow and ice are expected to be greatly affected by warming temperatures (Barnett et al, 2005;Viviroli et al, 2011), with summer low flow magnitudes thought to be particularly vulnerable (Dierauer et al, 2018;Jenicek et al, 2016). Indeed, a wealth of evidence attesting the widespread decline of the glaciers and other hydrologically-relevant components of the mountain cryosphere now exists (Beniston et al, 2018;Bolch et al, 2012;Bormann et al, 2018;Huss et al, 2017;Klein et al, 2016;Vuille et al, 2018), and the consequential impacts on stream discharges are increasingly detectible (Casassa et al, 2009;Lane and Nienow, 2019;Micheletti and Lane, 2016). Accordingly, predictions of the impacts of future climatic change on the quantity and timing of mountain runoff remain in high demand, and the substantial body of literature in which hydrological models are applied to make such predictions continues to be augmented (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Efficient multi-objective calibration and uncertainty analysis of distributed snow simulations in rugged alpine terrain

Thornton

Mariethoz

Brauchli

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. In steep and complex mountainous terrain, robust simulations of snow accumulation and ablation are crucial to a wide range of applications, especially those related to hydrology and ecology. Whilst new opportunities exist to integrate high-resolution spatio-temporal observations in the estimation of uncertain parameters in (a.k.a. “calibration” of) sophisticated, process-rich snow models, they have not yet been fully exploited. Here, with a view towards improving representations of snow and ultimately meltwater dynamics in rugged topography, a novel approach to the calibration of a high-resolution energy balance-based snow model that additionally accounts for gravitational snow redistribution is presented. Several important but uncertain parameters are estimated using an efficient, gradient-based method with respect to two complementary types of snow observations – snow extent maps derived from Landsat 8 images, and snow water equivalent (SWE) time-series reconstructed at two contrasting locations. When assessed on a per-pixel basis over 17 days that together encompass practically the full range of possible snow cover conditions, snow patterns were reproduced with a mean accuracy of 85 %. The spatial performance metrics obtained compare favourably with those previously reported, whilst the temporal evolution of SWE at the stations was also satisfactorily simulated. Uncertainty and data worth analyses revealed that: i) the propensity for model predictions to be erroneous was substantially reduced by the calibration process, ii) pre-calibration uncertainty was largely associated with two parameters that were introduced to modify the longwave component of the energy balance, but this uncertainty was greatly diminished by calibration, and iii) the lower elevation SWE time-series was particularly valuable despite the comparatively small number of observations at this site. Alongside a gridded snowmelt dataset, commensurate estimates of firn melt, ice melt, liquid precipitation, and potential evapotranspiration were also produced. Our study demonstrates the growing potential of combining observation technologies and state-of-the-art inverse approaches to both constrain and quantify the uncertainty associated with simulations of alpine snow dynamics.

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Decadal‐Scale Climate Forcing of Alpine Glacial Hydrological Systems

Cited by 41 publications

References 70 publications

Ecosystem engineers: Biofilms and the ontogeny of glacier floodplain ecosystems

Ecosystem engineers: Biofilms and the ontogeny of glacier floodplain ecosystems

Hydropower Flushing Events Cause Severe Loss of Macrozoobenthos in Alpine Streams

Efficient multi-objective calibration and uncertainty analysis of distributed snow simulations in rugged alpine terrain

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