Glacier loss and vegetation expansion alter organic and inorganic carbon dynamics in high-mountain streams

Robison, Andrew L.; Deluigi, Nicola; Rolland, Camille; Manetti, Nicolas; Battin, Tom

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2301-2023

Articles | Volume 20, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2301-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2301-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 12

Research article

|

21 Jun 2023

Research article |

| 21 Jun 2023

Glacier loss and vegetation expansion alter organic and inorganic carbon dynamics in high-mountain streams

Andrew L. Robison, Nicola Deluigi, Camille Rolland, Nicolas Manetti, and Tom Battin

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2301-2023-supplement

Data sets

ICOS Atmosphere Level 2 data L. Emmenegger, M. Leuenberger, M. Steinbacher, F. Conen, and Y.-A. Roulet https://doi.org/10.18160/G6ZC-QEKA

Model code and software

SBER METALP Data Portal M. Clement, N. Deluigi, and L. Gomez https://github.com/mclement18/SBER-METALP-data-portal

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Short summary

Climate change is affecting mountain ecosystems intensely, including the loss of glaciers and the uphill migration of plants. How these changes will affect the streams draining these landscapes is unclear. We sampled streams across a gradient of glacier and vegetation cover in Switzerland and found glacier loss reduced the carbon dioxide sink from weathering, while vegetation cover increased dissolved organic carbon in the stream. These changes are important to consider for mountains globally.