Presentation Abstract:

Glaciers have retreated and thinned around the world over the last decades. All glaciers outside the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica contribute approximately just as much to current global sea-level rise as the two large ice sheets combined. In addition to sea-level rise, wastage of these glaciers affects local river systems. As glaciers melt at a faster rate they will initially provide increased water to downstream reaches. However, this will be followed by a reduction in runoff as the glaciers dwindle. I will present global scale assessments and 100-year projections of glacier mass changes and the implications on sea-level and streamflow including some case studies from Alaska.