September 28, 2019–How Does Climate Change Affect Mountainous Watersheds That Give Us Our Water? (Berkeley Lab)

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The image of huge chunks of ice breaking away from glaciers and ice sheets, then floating out to sea in Earth’s most remote places, may be the most iconic symbol of a warming planet. And while most people will never see these familiar phenomena up close, what’s happening within some of the iciest settings still affects people and regions thousands of miles away.

Ecologist Heidi Steltzer, a Fort Lewis College professor and member of the Department of Energy’s Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) project led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, studies how reduced snowpack and earlier snowmelt caused by climate change impact water supply in high-mountain areas. She is a contributing lead author of a new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change. The Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) assesses the latest scientific literature to describe the impacts of climate change on the ocean and cryosphere – water in its solid state, which in mountains includes glaciers, permafrost, and snow.

Steltzer drew upon experience working in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado near the headwaters of the Colorado River in co-authoring the report’s chapter on high mountains. This marks the first time since 1996 that the IPCC has featured a chapter on mountains within one of its reports. “Mountain systems provide water to people – water that is essential for drinking, growing food, industry, and energy systems. Available water depends not just on how big a glacier is or how much snow falls or how fast melting happens, but also on how the ice and snow affect plants, microbes, and soils,” said Steltzer. To view the full article visit the Berkeley Lab.