Rainfall as primary driver of discharge and solute export from rock glaciers: The Col d'Olen Rock Glacier in the NW Italian Alps

Colombo, Nicola; Gruber, Stephan; Martín, María; Malandrino, Mery; Magnani, Andrea; Godone, Danilo; Freppaz, Michèle; Fratianni, Simona; Salerno, Franco

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.05.098

Cited by 30 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 98 publications

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“…This is in line with the literature on rock glacier hydrology stating that these landforms act as unconfined aquifers in mountain slopes (e.g., Jones et al, ; Krainer & Mostler, ). The enrichment of solutes and trace elements in rock glacier outflows is commonly attributed to the thaw of internal ice and to the associated weathering of freshly exposed rock particles (Colombo et al, ; Ilyashuk, Ilyashuk, Psenner, Tessadri, & Koinig, ; Munroe, ; Williams, Knauf, Caine, Liu, & Verplanck, ). Accordingly, the high values of EC, major ions, and trace elements, we observed increasing over the season, are consistent with data reported in the literature on rock glacier hydrology (e.g., Colombo et al, ; Mair et al, ; Millar, Westfall, & Delany, ; Williams et al, ) and suggest that part of the rock glacial baseflow in summer came from permafrost thaw, in addition to the groundwater fraction, and this increased as summer progressed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

After the peak water: the increasing influence of rock glaciers on alpine river systems

Brighenti

Tolotti

Bruno

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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Human‐accelerated climate change is quickly leading to glacier‐free mountains, with consequences for the ecology and hydrology of alpine river systems. Water origin (i.e., glacier, snowmelt, precipitation, and groundwater) is a key control on multiple facets of alpine stream ecosystems, because it drives the physico‐chemical template of the habitat in which ecological communities reside and interact and ecosystem processes occur. Accordingly, distinct alpine stream types and associated communities have been identified. However, unlike streams fed by glaciers (i.e., kryal), groundwater (i.e., krenal), and snowmelt/precipitation (i.e., rhithral), those fed by rock glaciers are still poorly documented. We characterized the physical and chemical features of these streams and investigated the influence of rock glaciers on the habitat template of alpine river networks. We analysed two subcatchments in a deglaciating area of the Central European Alps, where rock glacier‐fed, groundwater‐fed, and glacier‐fed streams are all present. We monitored the spatial, seasonal, and diel variability of physical conditions (i.e., water temperature, turbidity, channel stability, and discharge) and chemical variables (electrical conductivity, major ions, and trace element concentrations) during the snowmelt, glacier ablation, and flow recession periods of two consecutive years. We observed distinct physical and chemical conditions and seasonal responses for the different stream types. Rock glacial streams were characterized by very low and constant water temperatures, stable channels, clear waters, and high concentrations of ions and trace elements that increased as summer progressed. Furthermore, one rock glacier strongly influenced the habitat template of downstream waters due to high solute export, especially in late summer under increased permafrost thaw. Given their unique set of environmental conditions, we suggest that streams fed by thawing rock glaciers are distinct river habitats that differ from those normally classified for alpine streams. Rock glaciers may become increasingly important in shaping the hydroecology of alpine river systems under continued deglaciation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

After the peak water: the increasing influence of rock glaciers on alpine river systems

Brighenti

Tolotti

Bruno

et al. 2019

Hydrological Processes

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“…The pond has an area of 1,600 m 2 , with maximum length and width of approximately 60 x 40 m, and reaches a maximum depth of about 3 m. It is a clear-water pond, characterised by oligotrophic conditions and by the lack of macroalgal and macrophyte cover on the bottom, with the shallower areas close to the shore undergoing seasonal freezing. More details on the catchment structural settings and hydrological dynamics of the pond are described in Colombo et al [17,20]. The research site is a node of the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) network in Italy (http://www.lteritalia.it).…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Moreover, the limited dimensions potentially increase its susceptibility to external environmental pressures [18,19]. The presence of a localised inflow from the RG has been confirmed [17], but it is important to specify that these meltwater inputs have been described as intermittent, concentrated only in the snow-free season and mainly linked to precipitation events [17,20]. Meltwaters also showed only a moderate increase in solutes concentration if compared with the pond waters [20], differing in this sense from other RGlake/stream systems affected by natural acid rock drainage phenomena [9,14,15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The presence of a localised inflow from the RG has been confirmed [17], but it is important to specify that these meltwater inputs have been described as intermittent, concentrated only in the snow-free season and mainly linked to precipitation events [17,20]. Meltwaters also showed only a moderate increase in solutes concentration if compared with the pond waters [20], differing in this sense from other RGlake/stream systems affected by natural acid rock drainage phenomena [9,14,15]. Nevertheless, beside RG inputs can be limited in frequency and magnitude, microbial communities can quickly react to environmental pressures acting directly or indirectly on them [21], becoming a powerful instrument for the detection of ecosystem perturbations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Prokaryotic Diversity and Distribution in Different Habitats of an Alpine Rock Glacier-Pond System

et al. 2018

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Rock glaciers (RG) are assumed to influence the biogeochemistry of downstream ecosystems because of the high ratio of rock:water in those systems, but no studies have considered the effects of a RG inflow on the microbial ecology of sediments in a downstream pond. An alpine RG-pond system, located in the NW Italian Alps has been chosen as a model, and Bacteria and Archaea 16S rRNA genes abundance, distribution and diversity have been assessed by qPCR and Illumina sequencing, coupled with geochemical analyses on sediments collected along a distance gradient from the RG inflow. RG surface material and neighbouring soil have been included in the analysis to better elucidate relationships among different habitats. Our results showed that different habitats harboured different, well separated microbial assemblages. Across the pond, the main variations in community composition (e.g. Thaumarchaeota and Cyanobacteria relative abundance) and porewater geochemistry (pH, DOC, TDN and NH4 +) were not directly linked to RG proximity, but to differences in water depth. Some microbial markers potentially linked to the presence of meltwater inputs from the RG have been recognised, although the RG seems to have a greater influence on the pond microbial communities due to its contribution in terms of sedimentary material.

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“…[1,2] In recent years, there are many studies [3][4][5][6][7][8] focusing on energy storage and conversion setups to develop the method of collecting and using the renewable, sustainable, and green energy resource. [41,42] Within the real rainwater energy harvester, the electric double layer is formed in the solid/liquid interface with anions or cations absorbed into the charged surface. Since a piezoelectric nanogenerator (PENG) was www.advsustainsys.com rainwater contains various abundant anions (Cl − , NO 2− , NO 3− , PO 4 3− , SO , 4 2− etc.)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Filter Paper‐Based Nanogenerator via Water‐Drop Flow

Yang

et al. 2019

Advanced Sustainable Systems

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proposed to harvest the ultrasonic wave's energy using zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowire arrays, [9] the nanogenerator has entered a period of rapid development. [10][11][12][13] Various energies have been harvested using many kinds of nanogenerators, [4] such as triboelectric nanogenerators, [13] PENGs, [14] thermal-electric nanogenerators, [15] and photoelectric nanogenerators. [16] In addition, the as-harvested energy has various resources, such as wind, [17][18][19] heat energy, [20,21] solar power, [22] vibration, [23,24] mechanical energy, [25] electromagnetic waves, [26] chemical energy, [27] and water energy. [11,28,29] Therein, the nanogengerator induced from water-flow [30][31][32][33][34] and water evaporation [29,35] is a majority part of the water energy nanogenerator. Generally, the energy-produced principle from water-flow and water evaporation could be divided into two categories according to the surface properties of the nanogenerator. On the one hand, as the ionic solution

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Rainfall as primary driver of discharge and solute export from rock glaciers: The Col d'Olen Rock Glacier in the NW Italian Alps

Cited by 30 publications

References 98 publications

After the peak water: the increasing influence of rock glaciers on alpine river systems

After the peak water: the increasing influence of rock glaciers on alpine river systems

Prokaryotic Diversity and Distribution in Different Habitats of an Alpine Rock Glacier-Pond System

A Filter Paper‐Based Nanogenerator via Water‐Drop Flow

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