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

冰川在全球环境中起着重要的作用。它们是世界上大多数淡水的储存系统，它们极大地改变了景观，影响着生态系统，并为我们提供了气候和大气条件和变化的直接记录。冰川也位于最原始和最美丽的景观之一。为应对全球变暖，在过去100-150年中，世界各地的冰川一直在退缩和减少质量，这大大促进了全球海平面上升。冰川退缩的一个显著影响是冰川系统的整体解体：曾经附着在主干冰川上的支流可能会脱离，并停止向这些主要冰川体输送冰。这项研究计划量化了这些支流树干在加拿大西部的相互作用，使用一套方法，并将有助于我们的冰川系统的知识的进步，以提高冰川和冰盖动态预测及其对气候变化的反应。了解与支流的存在和性质有关的过程，也将有助于预测冰川退缩速度、水流状况变化和冰川涌动。

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.