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.
Melting glaciers could speed up carbon emissions | School of Geography
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Melting Glaciers Could Speed Up Carbon Emissions Into the Atmosphere
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Credit: Lee Brown
The loss of glaciers worldwide enhances the breakdown of complex carbon molecules in rivers, potentially contributing further to climate change.
An international research team led by the University of Leeds has for the first time linked glacier-fed mountain rivers with higher rates of plant material decomposition, a major process in the global carbon cycle.
As mountain glaciers melt, water is channelled into rivers downstream. But with global warming accelerating the loss of glaciers, rivers have warmer water temperatures and are less prone to variable water flow and sediment movement. These conditions are then much more favourable for fungi to establish and grow.