Publications related to Thwaites Glacier

Into the ice: Exploration and data capturing in glacial moulins by a tethered robot

Josephine Anna Eleanor Hughes, Max Mirko Polzin

Glacial moulins (cylindrical meltwater drainage shafts) provide valuable insights into glacier dynamics, but are inaccessible and hazardous environments for humans to study. Exploring them using passive sensor probes has revealed their complex geometry, wh ...

Wiley2024

The microbial genomics of glacier-fed streams: adaptations to an extreme ecosystem

Massimo Bourquin

Glacier-fed streams are the cold, ultra-oligotrophic, and unstable streams that are fed by glacial meltwater. Despite these extreme conditions, they harbour a diverse and abundant microbial diversity that develops into biofilms, covering the boulders and s ...

EPFL2024

The biofilm ecology of proglacial floodplain streams

Jade Brandani

Glacial forelands figure among the most dynamic landscapes on Earth, and their formation is currently accelerating given glacier shrinkage. Draining these forelands are streams hosting unique microbial communities, which have the capacity to impact both th ...

EPFL2023

Homogeneous Environmental Selection Structures the Bacterial Communities of Benthic Biofilms in Proglacial Floodplain Streams

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud, Leïla Ezzat, Massimo Bourquin, Jade Brandani, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis

Streams draining proglacial floodplains harbor benthic biofilms comprised of diverse microbial communities. These high-mountain ecosystems are rapidly changing with climate warming, and it is therefore critical to better understand the mechanisms underlyin ...

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY2023

Arctic mercury cycling

Hélène Paule Angot

Anthropogenic mercury (Hg) emissions have driven marked increases in Arctic Hg levels, which are now being impacted by regional warming, with uncertain ecological consequences. This Review presents a comprehensive assessment of the present-day total Hg mas ...

2022

The microbiome of cryospheric ecosystems

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Grégoire Marie Octave Edouard Michoud, Leïla Ezzat, Massimo Bourquin, Tyler Joe Kohler, Stylianos Fodelianakis

The cryosphere includes those parts of Earth where water or soil is frozen, such as snow, ice, glaciers and permafrost soils. Here, the authors present a global inventory of cryospheric microbial communities and their genetic repertoires. ...

Nature Portfolio2022

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

Catchment characteristics and seasonality control the composition of microbial assemblages exported from three outlet glaciers of the Greenland Ice Sheet

Tyler Joe Kohler, Martina Andrea Schön

Glacial meltwater drains into proglacial rivers where it interacts with the surrounding landscape, collecting microbial cells as it travels downstream. Characterizing the composition of the resulting microbial assemblages in transport can inform us about i ...

Frontiers Media SA2022

Towards implementing new isotopes for environmental research:Redetermination of the 32Si half-life

Mario Aaron Veicht

The predicted climate changes on Earth will significantly impact the environment and human society. The climate patterns observed during the past centuries led to a better understanding of the driving forces for such changes. However, more studies using ne ...

EPFL2022

A glacier-ocean interaction model for tsunami genesis due to iceberg calving

Johan Alexandre Philippe Gaume, Ming Gao

Dynamic glacier fracture and the subsequent generation and propagation of iceberg-induced tsunamis are reproduced using a unified numerical glacier-ocean model, in line with observations at the Eqip Sermia glacier in Greenland, as well as laboratory experi ...

SPRINGERNATURE2021

Black carbon and dust in the Third Pole glaciers: revaluated concentrations, mass absorption cross-sections and contributions to glacier ablation

Julia Schmale, Yang Li, Xinyang Li

In snow and ice, light-absorbing particles (LAPs), such as black carbon (BC) and dust, accelerate the melting of Third Pole glaciers (TPGs). In this study, we revaluated LAP concentrations in the snow pits of TPGs (SP-TPGs), measured LAP mass absorption cr ...

2021

Regimes of primary production and their drivers in Alpine streams

Tom Ian Battin, Amber Joy Ulseth, Marta Boix Canadell, Luis Gómez Gener, Mélanie Clémençon

Primary production is a fundamental ecosystem process that influences nutrient and carbon cycling, and trophic structure in streams. The magnitude and timing of gross primary production (GPP) are typically controlled by hydrology, light, nutrient availa ...

2021

Glacier retreat changes diurnal variation intensity and frequency of hydrologic variables in Alpine and Andean streams

Tom Ian Battin, Asa Lovisa Viktoria Horgby, Marta Boix Canadell, Nicolas Thomas Georges Escoffier

The impacts of glacier mass and area loss are assumed to affect stream hydrology and related ecosystems. We applied wavelet analysis to high frequency time series of discharge, conductivity, turbidity, air and water temperature in mountain streams influenc ...

2020

Carbon fluxes and productivity regimes in Alpine streams

Marta Boix Canadell

High-altitude catchments have a major role in the transport of organic matter to streams due to the storage of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in soils and glacier ice and the subsequent mobilization during the melting processes. Yet, stream function goes b ...

EPFL2020

Patterns and Drivers of Extracellular Enzyme Activity in New Zealand Glacier-Fed Streams

Tom Ian Battin, Hannes Markus Peter, Matteo Tolosano, Susheel Bhanu Busi, Tyler Joe Kohler, Paraskevi Pramateftaki, Vincent Henri De Staercke, Stylianos Fodelianakis, Michail Styllas, Martina Andrea Schön

Glacier-fed streams (GFSs) exhibit near-freezing temperatures, variable flows, and often high turbidities. Currently, the rapid shrinkage of mountain glaciers is altering the delivery of meltwater, solutes, and particulate matter to GFSs, with unknown cons ...

Frontiers Media SA2020

Alpine Glacier Shrinkage Drives Shift in Dissolved Organic Carbon Export From Quasi‐Chemostasis to Transport Limitation

Tom Ian Battin, Amber Joy Ulseth, Marta Boix Canadell, Nicolas Thomas Georges Escoffier

The export of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from catchments is considered as an important energy flux through streams and a major connection between terrestrial and aquatic systems. However, the impact that predicted hydrological changes due to glacier re ...

2019

Multithermal-Multibaric Molecular Simulations from a Variational Principle

Pablo Miguel Piaggi, Michele Parrinello

We present a method for performing multithermal-multibaric molecular dynamics simulations that sample entire regions of the temperature-pressure (TP) phase diagram. The method uses a variational principle [Valsson and Parrinello, Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 0906 ...

2019

Spatiotemporal Drivers of CO2 Dynamics and Evasion Fluxes from Mountain Streams

Asa Lovisa Viktoria Horgby

Inland waters are key components of the global carbon cycle, emitting a substantial amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Climate change and global warming affect mountain catchments significantly, leading to glacier retreat and changing precip ...

EPFL2019

The role of glacier retreat for Swiss hydropower production

Pedro Filipe De Almeida Manso, Bettina Schaefli

High elevation or high latitude hydropower production (HP) strongly relies on water resources that are influenced by glacier melt and are thus highly sensitive to climate warming. Despite of the wide-spread glacier retreat since the development of HP infra ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2018