Poindexter
1
Jenica Poindexter
NAT 388.70
Professor Scott Schaefer
1 August 2017
Glacier Loss: The Outcome is More than Rising Water Levels
To many, climate change is just a figment of the imagination. That climate change is not
occurring, or if it is it is very subtle and is not affecting the environment what so ever. Which
means that these changes that are occurring due to climate change are not occurring, changes
such as glacier loss. Many may think about the CO2 levels that are being put into the atmosphere
more than any other change, when in reality glacier loss is really important. Glacier loss is one of
those things that affects the environment in several different ways. Glacier loss affects the
environment through ecosystem changes (marine and on land), rising water levels, and human
vulnerability. The effects of glacier loss have already affected those three areas, and will
continue to affect, possibly get worse, if something is not done in order to prevent any further
melting and preserve the glaciers that are still around.
This paper talks about what affects glacier loss has had on different glacier around the
world. Glaciers such as the Andean glacier, the Tien Shan, and the McCall glacier. How the
melting of glaciers has affected the ecosystems that are around the glacier, the bodies of water
(streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans), and t=even the humans that live near and rely on the glacier
for different things. This paper also talk about the importance of knowing this data and what can
be done with it. An lastly, it helps give an insight into what the future of glacier loss holds for us
and the environment.
Poindexter
2
Researchers and scientist have been studying for years the effects of what glacier loss has
attributed to, alongside with what causes glacier loss. Scientist have noticed that there is more to
glacier loss then just the rising of sea water and the water in other bodies of water. That the melting
of the glaciers also affects the ecosystems that surround the glaciers. In one article titled “Climate
change links fate of glaciers and an endemic alpine invertebrate”, they look at c certain type of
fish, an L. tumana, in the alpine region and how the glacier loss is affecting them. One of the ways
that the melting glaciers is affecting the L. tumana is the rising water temperatures. Studies have
shown that the rising temperatures are strongly associated with the increasing distance from snow
and ice fields due to time of solar radiation exposure and warming as water flows down the stream.
This increase in water temperatures has an direct effect on the distribution and abundance of L.
tumana within the streams. Such as the fish have tried to find places in the stream or in other
