Climate sensitivity of glacial landscape dynamics
The European Research Council (ERC) has recently awarded Dirk Scherler with a Starting Grant, to finance the research project “Climate sensitivity of glacial landscape dynamics (COLD)”. In this project, Scherler aims to quantify how erosion rates in glacial landscapes vary with climate change and how such changes affect the dynamics of mountain glaciers. The project will focus on the erosion of ice-free hillslopes, which are abundant in steep mountain ranges, like the European Alps or the Himalaya. Debris that is supplied from such hillslopes ends up covering glacier surfaces where it impedes ice melting. The response of debris-covered glaciers to climate changes therefore depends in part on how these hillslopes respond to climate change. Together with 3 PhD students and one Postdoc researcher, D. Scherler will combine cosmogenic nuclide analysis, numerical modelling, and planetary-scale remote sensing to gauge the temperature-sensitivity of hillslope erosion rates in glacial landscapes. The 5-year project shall start in January 2018.
Project Members
- Deniz Gök (GFZ Section 3.3 Earth Surface Geochemistry, PhD Student)
- Katharina Wetterauer (Universität der Bundeswehr München, formerly: PhD Student at GFZ Section 3.3 Earth Surface Geochemistry)
- Donovan Dennis (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, formerly: PhD Student at GFZ Section 3.3 Earth Surface Geochemistry)
- Leif Anderson (University of Utah in Salt Lake City, formerly: Postdoc at GFZ Section 3.3 Earth Surface Geochemistry)
Cooperation Partners
- Dr. Hendrik Wulf, Remote Sensing Laboratories, University of Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
- Dr. Samuel Niedermann, GFZ Section 3.1 Inorganic and Isotope Geochemistry
- Dr. Marissa Tremblay, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA
- Dr. Ludovic Ravanel, Université Savoie Mont Blanc, Chambéry, France
- Dr. Benny Guralnik, Danmarks Tekniske Universitet, Lyngby, Denmark
- Dr. Kristina Hippe, Umweltplanung Dr. Klimsa, Berlin, Germany
- Dr. Maarten Lupker, State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation, Bern, Switzerland
Time Frame
- 2018 - 2023
Funding
- Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement 759639.
Publications
- Wetterauer, K., Scherler, D. (2023): Spatial and temporal variations in rockwall erosion rates derived from cosmogenic 10Be in medial moraines at five valley glaciers around Pigne d'Arolla, Switzerland, Earth Surface Dynamics, vol. 11, p. 1013–1033, doi:10.5194/esurf-11-1013-2023
- Nanni, U., Scherler, D., Ayoub, F., Millan, R., Herman, F., Avouac, J.-P. (2023): Climatic control on seasonal variations in mountain glacier surface velocity, The Cryosphere, vol. 17, p. 1567–1583, doi:10.5194/tc-17-1567-2023
- Gök, D.T., Scherler, D., Anderson, L.S. (2023): High-resolution debris-cover mapping using UAV-derived thermal imagery: limits and opportunities, The Cryosphere, vol. 17, p. 1165–1184, doi:10.5194/tc-17-1165-2023
- Wetterauer, K., Scherler, D., Anderson, L.S., Wittmann, H. (2022): Temporal evolution of headwall erosion rates derived from cosmogenic nuclide concentrations in the medial moraines of Glacier d'Otemma, Switzerland. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, vol. 27, p. 2437-2454, doi:10.1002/esp.5386
- Dennis, D.P., Scherler, D. (2022): A Combined Cosmogenic Nuclides Approach for Determining the Temperature-Dependence of Erosion. Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface, vol. 127, e2021JF006580, doi:10.1029/2021JF006580
- Anderson, L. S., Armstrong, W. H., Anderson, R. S., Buri, P. (2021): Debris cover and the thinning of Kennicott Glacier, Alaska: in situ measurements, automated ice cliff delineation and distributed melt estimates. The Cryosphere, vol. 15, p. 265–282, doi:10.5194/tc-15-265-2021.
- Anderson, L.S., Armstrong, W.H., Anderson, R.S., Scherler, D., Petersen, E. (2021): The causes of debris-covered glacier thinning: Evidence for the importance of ice dynamics from Kennicott Glacier, Alaska. Frontiers in Earth Sciences, 9:680995, doi:10.3389/feart.2021.680995
- Scherler, D., Egholm, D.L. (2020): Production and transport of supraglacial debris: Insights from cosmogenic 10Be and numerical modeling, Chhota Shigri Glacier, Indian Himalaya. Journal of Geophysical Research Earth Surface, vol. 125, e2020JF005586, doi:10.1029/2020JF005586
- Scherler, D., Wulf, H., Gorelick, N. (2018): Global assessment of supraglacial debris cover extents. Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 45, p. 11,798-11,805, doi:10.1029/2018GL080158
