Engineering Geology for Society and Territory - Volume 1

Lollino, Giorgio; Manconi, Andrea; Clague, John J.; Shan, Wei; Chiarle, Marta

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09300-0

Cited by 25 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 163 publications

(211 reference statements)

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“…Thus the monitoring of this phenomenon should be established as a precautionary measure in places where human populations and infrastructure are located downstream from potentially dangerous sites. In steep terrains, thawing of mountain permafrost can also influence the frequency and magnitude of gravitational natural hazards with consequences for local communities and infrastructure (Arenson and Jakob, 2015;Deline et al, 2015). To date, only few studies have focused on the issue of volcanic activity and ice-volcano interactions (Rivera et al, 2012a;Rivera and Bown, 2013).…”

Section: Geological Impacts Of Deglaciationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Current State and Recent Changes of the Andean Cryosphere

et al. 2020

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The Andes Cordillera contains the most diverse cryosphere on Earth, including extensive areas covered by seasonal snow, numerous tropical and extratropical glaciers, and many mountain permafrost landforms. Here, we review some recent advances in the study of the main components of the cryosphere in the Andes, and discuss the changes observed in the seasonal snow and permanent ice masses of this region over the past decades. The open access and increasing availability of remote sensing products has produced a substantial improvement in our understanding of the current state and recent changes of the Andean cryosphere, allowing an unprecedented detail in their identification and monitoring at local and regional scales. Analyses of snow cover maps has allowed the identification of seasonal patterns and long term trends in snow accumulation for most of the Andes, with some sectors in central Chile and central-western Argentina showing a clear decline in snowfall and snow persistence since 2010. This recent shortage of mountain snow has caused an extended, severe drought that is unprecedented in the hydrological and climatological records from this region. Together with data from global glacier inventories, detailed inventories at local/regional scales are now also freely available, providing important new information for glaciological, hydrological, and climatological assessments in different sectors of the Andes. Numerous studies largely based on field measurements and/or remote sensing techniques have documented the recent glacier shrinkage throughout the Andes. This observed ice mass loss has put Andean glaciers among the highest contributors to sea level rise per unit area. Other recent studies have focused on rock glaciers, showing that in extensive semi-arid sectors of the Andes these mountain permafrost features contain large reserves of freshwater and may play a crucial role as future climate becomes warmer and drier in this region. Many relevant issues remain to be investigated, however, including an improved estimation of ice volumes at local scales, and detailed assessments of the hydrological significance of the different components of the cryosphere in Andean river basins. The impacts of future climate changes on the Andean cryosphere also need to be studied in more detail, considering the contrasting

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Section: Geological Impacts Of Deglaciationmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Review of the Current State and Recent Changes of the Andean Cryosphere

et al. 2020

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“…Moreover, considering the emerging climate change scenarios in Mediterranean regions, an increase in frequency of extreme rainfall events in spring and autumn, especially after dry periods, may amplify off-site impacts on steep slopes by soil water erosion and heavy runoff [72–75]. Off-site impacts are related to non-point source pollution from agricultural fields: pesticide and fertilizers runoff into stream and river network, contamination of groundwater resources, and air pollution by emission of greenhouse gasses such as CO 2 , CH 4 and N 2 O [9,11,76]. This suggest that in mid- long-term degradation in ecosystem functioning could strongly affect agricultural productivity by drastic reduction in nutrients, organic matter, water capacity and biota.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of potential soil erosion in the Prosecco DOCG area (NE Italy), toward a soil footprint of bottled sparkling wine production in different land-management scenarios

et al. 2019

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Agricultural lands are the widest Human-modified ecosystems, making crop production the most extensive form of land use on Earth. However, in conventional agricultural land management, soil erosion may be boosted up to 1–2 orders of magnitude higher than the natural rates of soil production, making unproductive about the 30% of the world’s arable. Nowadays in Europe, vineyards represent the most erosion-prone agricultural lands, especially in Mediterranean countries, showing the highest erosion rates in comparison to other type of land uses. Prosecco wine is produced in NE Italy by a rate of 400 M bottles per year, with the fastest growing demand in the global market at present. A production of 90 M bottles year -1 is currently running in the historical Prosecco DOCG (215 km 2 ), in a steep hilly landscape of Veneto Region (Conegliano-Valdobbiadene). To sustain wine production, agricultural intensification is at present increasing, by re-setting of hillslopes and land use changes towards new vineyard plantations. The aim of this study is to estimate and to map potential soil erosion rate, calculating a sort of “soil footprint” for wine production in different agricultural land-management scenarios. RUSLE model was adopted to estimate potential soil erosion in Mg ha −1 year −1 , by using high resolution topographic data (LiDAR), 10 years rainfall data analysis, detailed land use and local soil characteristics. For a conventional land-management scenario the estimated that total potential soil erosion in the Prosecco DOCG area is 411,266 Mg year -1 , with an erosion rate of 19.5 Mg ha year -1 . Modelled soil erosion is mainly clustered on steep slopes, with rates higher than 40 Mg ha -1 year -1 . In Prosecco vineyards potential soil erosion could reach 300,180 Mg year -1 , by a mean rate of 43.7 Mg ha -1 year -1 , which is 31 times higher than the upper limit of tolerable soil erosion threshold defined for Europe. In contrast, simulation of different nature-based scenarios (hedgerows, buffer strips, and grass cover) showed soil erosion could be effectively reduced: a 100% inter-row grass cover showed a reduction of almost 3 times in vineyards (from 43.7 to 14.6 Mg ha -1 year -1 ), saving about 50% of soil in the whole Prosecco DOCG. The soil footprint modelled for a conventional land-management scenario is about 3.3 kg every bottle produced; in contrast it would be reduced to 1.1 kg/bottle in the completely green land-management scenario. This study, as the first estimation of potential soil erosion at Prosecco DOCG scale, suggests that an integrated and public soil erosion monitoring system is strongly needed in viticultural area, by implementing direct/indirect field measures with spatial analyses at agricultural ...

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“…Permafrost stability directly depends on temperature and precipitation. It is now degrading due to climate warming, which increases the probability of geohazard occurrence (ACIA 2005;Arenson and Jakob 2015). More specifically, thaw settlement (subsidence of the ground due to thawing and subsequent draining of water), mass movements (downslope movements of masses of sediments or rocks on cliff and hillslope sections caused by gravity), and thermal erosion (combined thermal and mechanical action of running water on frozen ground) are related to permafrost degradation processes and are direct threats to the stability of physical structures established in the ground, such as dens.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low vulnerability of Arctic fox dens to climate change-related geohazards on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada

2021

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Climate change increases the risk of severe alterations to essential wildlife habitats. The Arctic fox (Vulpes lagopus) uses dens as shelters against cold temperatures and predators. These dens, needed for successful reproduction, are generally dug into the active layer on top of permafrost and reused across multiple generations. We assessed the vulnerability of Arctic fox dens to the increasing frequency of geohazards (thaw settlement, mass movements, thermal erosion) that is arising from climate change. On Bylot Island (Nunavut, Canada) we developed, and calculated from field observations, a qualitative vulnerability index to geohazards for Arctic fox dens. Of the 106 dens studied, 14% were classified as highly vulnerable while 17% and 69% had a moderate and low vulnerability. Vulnerability was not related to the probability of use for reproduction. While climate change will likely impact Arctic fox reproductive dens, such impact is not a major threat to foxes of Bylot Island. Our research provides first insights into the climate-related geohazards potentially affecting Arctic fox ecology in the next decades. The developed method is flexible and could be applied to other locations or other species that complete their life cycle in permafrost regions.

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Engineering Geology for Society and Territory - Volume 1

Cited by 25 publications

References 163 publications

A Review of the Current State and Recent Changes of the Andean Cryosphere

A Review of the Current State and Recent Changes of the Andean Cryosphere

Estimation of potential soil erosion in the Prosecco DOCG area (NE Italy), toward a soil footprint of bottled sparkling wine production in different land-management scenarios

Low vulnerability of Arctic fox dens to climate change-related geohazards on Bylot Island, Nunavut, Canada

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