Publications related to A conceptual glacio-hydrological model for high mountainous catchments

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

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

A seasonal snowpack model forced with dynamically downscaled forcing data resolves hydrologically relevant accumulation patterns

Michael Lehning, Tobias Jonas, Dylan Stewart Reynolds

The Mountain snowpack stores months of winter precipitation at high elevations, supplying snowmelt to lowland areas in drier seasons for agriculture and human consumption worldwide. Accurate seasonal predictions of the snowpack are thus of great importance ...

Frontiers Media Sa2024

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

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

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

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

Reproducibility Dataset for CRYOWRF v1.0

Michael Lehning, Varun Sharma, Franziska Gerber

This repository contains data required for reproducibility of the results to be published in the associated manuscript. Apart from reproducibility, the attached datasets also serve as templates for new users to adopt CRYOWRF in their research. The datasets ...

2023

Ecosystem engineering by periphyton in Alpine proglacial streams

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

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

Near-bed stratification controls bottom hypoxia in ice-covered alpine lakes

Damien Bouffard, Pascal Perolo, Tomy Doda, Nicolas Thomas Georges Escoffier, Janine Rüegg, Hannah Elisa Chmiel, Hugo Nicolás Ulloa Sánchez, Camille Roland Marie Minaudo

In ice-covered lakes, near-bottom oxygen concentration decreases for most of the wintertime, sometimes down to the point that bottom waters become hypoxic. Studies insofar have reached divergent conclusions on whether climate change limits or reinforces th ...

American Society of Limnology and Oceanography2023

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

In situ observations of the Swiss periglacial environment using GNSS instruments

Matthias Meyer, Hugo Raetzo, Alessandro Cicoira

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

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

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

Snowfall and snow accumulation during the MOSAiC winter and spring seasons

Marc Oggier, Michael Lehning, Marc Schneebeli Zeugin, David Nicholas Wagner, Markus Frey

Data from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition allowed us to investigate the temporal dynamics of snowfall, snow accumulation and erosion in great detail for almost the whole accumulation season (No ...

COPERNICUS GESELLSCHAFT MBH2022

Introducing CRYOWRF v1.0: multiscale atmospheric flow simulations with advanced snow cover modelling

Michael Lehning, Varun Sharma, Franziska Gerber

Accurately simulating snow-cover dynamics and the snow-atmosphere coupling is of major importance for topics as wide-ranging as water resources, natural hazards and climate change impacts with consequences for sea-level rise. We present a new modelling fra ...

2023

Evolution of stream and lake water temperature under climate change

Bettina Schaefli, Alfred Johny Wüest, Damien Bouffard, Wolf Hendrik Huwald, Carl Love Mikael Råman Vinnå, Martin Schmid, Adrien Michel

This report presents past observations and projects the future development of water temperature in Swiss lakes and rivers. Projections are made until the end of the 21st century using the CH2018 climate scenarios. Besides climate change effects on temperat ...

Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN)2021

Regimes of primary production and their drivers in Alpine streams

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

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

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

Yang Li, Julia Schmale, 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

Snowfall and snow accumulation processes during the MOSAiC winter and spring season

Marc Oggier, Michael Lehning, Marc Schneebeli Zeugin, David Nicholas Wagner, Markus Frey

Data from the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition allowed us to investigate the temporal dynamics of snowfall, snow accumulation, and erosion in great detail for almost the whole accumulation season (N ...

2021

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