Videos
Featured Scientist: Robert G. Spencer, Ph.D. Assistant Scientist
Project: Is the export of ancient, labile carbon from glacial ecosystems driven by the deposition of fossil fuel combustion byproducts?
Glaciers and ice sheets combined represent the second largest reservoir of water in the global hydrologic system and glacier ecosystems cover 10% of the Earth, yet the carbon dynamics underpinning these systems remain poorly understood. Increased understanding of glacier biogeochemistry is a priority, as glacier environments are among the most sensitive to climate warming and industrial forcing. Our recent work has found carbon-containing aerosols, derived mainly from biomass and fossil fuel burning, are a source of highly aged but yet reactive carbon to glacier ecosystems. Once deposited on glacier surfaces this material is exported downstream in meltwaters where it provides an energy subsidy to receiving aquatic ecosystems. If this depositional flux is ubiquitous and anthropogenic, then the surface biogeochemical cycles of today are universally post-industrial in a way we do not fully appreciate. In frigid glaciers any input stands out, making glaciers ideal sentinel ecosystems for the detection and study of anthropogenic perturbation of remote environments through deposition.
Video: Produced by Research Associate Kathleen Savage.
Image: Mount Nyainqêntanglha in the Tibetan Himalayas. Courtesy of Robert G. Spencer. Composite design by Development Solutions of New England (DSNE).
