Tributary-trunk interaction and glacier response to climate change in western Canada

冰川在全球环境中发挥着重要作用。它们是世界上大部分淡水的储存系统，它们极大地改变了景观，影响了生态系统，并为我们提供了气候和大气条件及变化的直接记录。冰川也坐落在最原始、最美丽的景观之一。为应对全球变暖，在过去的100-150年里，世界各地的冰川一直在退缩和损失质量，这对全球海平面上升起了重要作用。冰川退缩的一个显著影响是冰川系统的整体解体：曾经与冰川主干相连的支流可能会分离，并停止向这些主要冰川体输送冰。本研究项目使用一系列方法量化了加拿大西部的支流-干流相互作用，并将有助于提高我们对冰川系统的认识，以改善冰川和冰盖动力学的预测及其对气候变化的响应。对与支流的存在和性质有关的过程的了解，也将为预测冰川退缩率、水流形态变化和冰川涌动提供工具。

Glaciers play an important role in the global environment. They are storage systems of most of the world's fresh water, they dramatically alter the landscape, they affect ecosystems and provide us with direct records of climatic and atmospheric conditions and changes. Glaciers are also situated in one of the most pristine and beautiful landscapes. In response to global warming, glaciers worldwide have been retreating and losing mass in the past 100-150 years, which has contributed significantly to global sealevel rise. One notable effect of glacier retreat is the overall disintegration of the glacier system: tributaries that were once attached to their trunk glaciers can become detached and cease feeding ice into these main glacier bodies. This research program quantifies these tributary-trunk interactions in western Canada using a suite of approaches, and will contribute to the advancement of our knowledge of glacier systems in order to improve the prediction of glacier and ice sheet dynamics and their response to climate change. Knowledge of the processes related to the presence and nature of tributaries will also hold tools for prediction of glacier recession rates, changes in flow regime and glacier surging.