Mountain glaciers in western Canada could shrink by 70% relative to 2005 levels by the end of the century as a result of global warming.
Garry Clarke of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and his colleagues built a high-resolution model that includes ice dynamics and then ran it with a series of climate scenarios covering the twenty-first century. The model suggests that few glaciers in the Canadian Rocky Mountains (pictured) will persist by 2100, although glaciers in the coastal range of north-west British Columbia could survive “in a diminished state”, say the authors.
The team predicts that changes in run-off from the melting glaciers over the course of the century could affect aquatic ecosystems, agriculture, forests, water quality and tourism.
Nature Geosci. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2407 (2015)
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Few Canadian glaciers left by 2100. Nature 520, 134 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/520134a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/520134a
