UpdatedWed, Mar 17, 2021 at 3:18 pm ET
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Mount Cook in New Zealand (Lee Brown, University of Leeds, United Kingdom)
Oakland University Professor Scott Tiegs is a co-author on a new study that examines how glacier loss, driven by global warming, affects glacier-fed river ecosystems. The study was published March 15 in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Tiegs was part of an international team of researchers led by the University of Leeds (United Kingdom) that measured organic matter decomposition rates in mountain rivers in six countries and four continents. The study found that as glaciers melt, the rivers downstream support higher rates of organic matter decomposition, a major process in the global carbon cycle. This discovery could help researchers better predict how river ecosystems will change as mountains continue to lose ice due to global warming.