Publications related to Glaciology

Ecosystem engineering by periphyton in Alpine proglacial streams

Tom Ian Battin, Davide Mancini, Marc Aguet, Adrijan Selitaj, Matteo Roncoroni

Stream periphytons are candidate ecosystem engineers in proglacial margins. Here, we quantify the extent to which they are engineers for the case of hillslope-fed tributaries in the terrace zones of proglacial margin alluvial plains. Candidate ecosystem en ...

WILEY2023

A Depth-Averaged Material Point Method for Shallow Landslides: Applications to Snow Slab Avalanche Release

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Lars Kristoffer Uhlen Blatny, Bertil Trottet, Denis Aloyse Joseph Steffen, Louis Marie Cédric Guillet

Shallow landslides pose a significant threat to people and infrastructure. Despite significant progress in the understanding of such phenomena, the evaluation of the size of the landslide release zone, a crucial input for risk assessment, still remains a c ...

AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION2023

Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Snow on Central Arctic Sea Ice and its Implications

David Nicholas Wagner

This thesis presents a comprehensive investigation of the interaction between precipitation and wind-induced erosion and deposition of snow on Arctic sea ice. The study uses observations from the 2019-2020 MOSAiC expedition and makes use of the 3D snow cov ...

EPFL2023

In situ observations of the Swiss periglacial environment using GNSS instruments

Alessandro Cicoira, Matthias Meyer, Hugo Raetzo

Monitoring of the periglacial environment is relevant for many disciplines including glaciology, natural hazard management, geomorphology, and geodesy. Since October 2022, Rock Glacier Velocity (RGV) is a new Essential Climate Variable (ECV) product within ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2022

The Biogeochemical Legacy of Arctic Subglacial Sediments Exposed by Glacier Retreat

Tyler Joe Kohler

During past periods of advance, Arctic glaciers and ice sheets overrode soil, sediments, and vegetation and buried significant stores of organic matter (OM); these glaciers are now shrinking rapidly due to climate warming. Little is known about the biogeoc ...

2022

Assessing the impact of ground ice degradation on high mountain lake environments (Lago Nero catchment, Swiss Alps)

Nicola Deluigi, Monica Bulgheroni

In high mountain hydrosystems, glacial meltwater composition is potentially affected by the degradation of alpine permafrost terrains and ground ice bodies releasing atmospheric pollutants that have been stored in permafrost terrains for several decades. I ...

SPRINGER BASEL AG2020

Stream temperature and discharge evolution in Switzerland over the last 50 years: annual and seasonal behaviour

Michael Lehning, Wolf Hendrik Huwald, Adrien Michel, Bettina Schaefli, Tristan Jonas Brauchli

Stream temperature and discharge are key hydro- logical variables for ecosystem and water resource management and are particularly sensitive to climate warming. Despite the wealth of meteorological and hydrological data, few studies have quantified observe ...

2020

Cycling of zinc and its isotopes across multiple zones of the Southern Ocean: Insights from the Antarctic Circumnavigation Expedition

Christel Sybille Hassler

Zinc (Zn) is an essential micronutrient, playing an important role in several key processes in marine phytoplankton. Here, we present the first high-resolution depth profiles for dissolved Zn and delta Zn-66 from all major zones of the Southern Ocean, coll ...

2020

Investigation of subglacial weathering under the Greenland Ice Sheet using silicon isotopes

Tyler Joe Kohler

Subglacial chemical weathering plays a key role in global silicate weathering budgets, contributing to the cycling of silicon (Si) in terrestrial and marine systems and the potential drawdown of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Here, we use data from tw ...

2019

Innovative methods to release fine sediments from reservoirs developed at EPFL, Switzerland

Anton Schleiss, Giovanni De Cesare, Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Azin Amini, Sabine Chamoun

Electricity generation, water supply, flood protection, flow regulation and navigation are amongst the main services provided by reservoirs. Sedimentation affects the sustainability of reservoirs, by reducing their storage capacity, and increases the negat ...

2019

Numerical Experiments of Atmospheric Boundary Layer flows : interplay between distributed drag elements and buoyancy effects

Varun Sharma

Anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases due to human activity is causing global warming and inducing climate change. A major implication of global warming is the decreasing ice mass in the polar regions resulting in sea-level rise. It is now known that ...

EPFL2018

Alpine hydropower production and glacier retreat: the case of Switzerland

Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Bettina Schaefli

Hydropower production (HP) in high mountainous areas relies on snow- and glacier melt influenced water resources and is thus highly sensitive to climate warming. Based on the case of Switzerland that produces over 50% of its electricity from hydropower, we ...

2018

Precipitation at Dumont d'Urville, Adelie Land, East Antarctica: the APRES3 field campaigns dataset

Alexis Berne, Jacopo Grazioli, Christophe Praz

Compared to the other continents and lands, Antarctica suffers from a severe shortage of in situ observations of precipitation. APRES3 (Antarctic Precipitation, Remote Sensing from Surface and Space) is a program dedicated to improving the observation of A ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2018

On the suitability of the Thorpe-Mason model for calculating sublimation of saltating snow

Varun Sharma, Michael Lehning, Francesco Comola

The Thorpe and Mason (TM) model for calculating the mass lost from a sublimating snow grain is the basis of all existing small-and large-scale estimates of drifting snow sublimation and the associated snow mass balance of polar and alpine regions. We revis ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2018

A model of the western Laurentide Ice Sheet, using observations of glacial isostatic adjustment

Jean-Philippe Lucien Montillet

We present the results of a new numerical model of the late glacial western Laurentide Ice Sheet, constrained by observations of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA), including relative sea level indicators, uplift rates from permanent GPS stations, contempo ...

Elsevier2016

Freshwater Flux and Spatiotemporal Simulated Runoff Variability into Ilulissat Icefjord, West Greenland, Linked to Salinity and Temperature Observations near Tidewater Glacier Margins Obtained Using Instrumented Ringed Seals

Konrad Steffen

The distribution of terrestrial surface runoff to Ilulissat Icefjord, west Greenland, is simulated for the period 2009-13 to better emphasize the spatiotemporal variability in freshwater flux and the link between runoff spikes and observed hydrographic con ...

Amer Meteorological Soc2015

Local Extremes In The Lidar-Derived Snow Cover Of Alpine Glaciers

Michael Lehning

Snow deposition and redistribution are major drivers of snow cover dynamics in mountainous terrain and contribute to the mass balance of alpine glaciers. The quantitative understanding of inhomogeneous snow distribution in mountains has recently benefited ...

Wiley-Blackwell2015

The structure and effect of suture zones in the Larsen C Ice Shelf, Antarctica

Konrad Steffen

Ice shelf fractures frequently terminate where they encounter suture zones, regions of material heterogeneity that form between meteoric inflows in ice shelves. This heterogeneity can consist of marine ice, meteoric ice with modified rheological properties ...

Amer Geophysical Union2014

Snowpack regimes of the Western United States

Ernesto Trujillo Gomez

Snow accumulation and melt patterns play a significant role in the water, energy, carbon, and nutrient cycles in the montane environments of the Western United States. Recent studies have illustrated that changes in the snow/rainfall apportionments and sno ...

American Geophysical Union2014

A case study on spatial and temporal hydraulic variability in an alpine gravel-bed stream based on the hydromorphological index of diversity

Anton Schleiss, Walter Gostner, Piotr Parasiewicz

Physical heterogeneity is a major topic in river sciences because it is known to be a key factor for ecological integrity. In this paper, we investigated the hydraulic enviroment in an alpine gravel-bed stream with an unaltered hydrological regime. The stu ...

John Wiley and Sons2013