Glacier's role in maintaining natural systems

• Glacial and periglacial ecosystems


  • Significant to global life support systems
• 75% of global freshwater is held as glacial ice
• Glacial valleys


  • Form natural water reservoirs
• Glacial lakes


  • Can be used for HEP
• Boulder, Colorado relies heavily on the Arapaho glacier for its drinking and agricultural water
• Glaciated ecosystems


  • Provide a source for commercial sales of bottled water
• Periglacial areas


  • Sources of carbon sinks
• The northern hemisphere's frozen soils and peatlands hold about 1,700 billion tonnes of carbon, which is four times more than humans have emitted since the industrial revolution, and twice as much as is currently in the atmosphere
• Tundra peat ecosystems


  1. Gain carbon through the anaerobic decay of plant/animal biomass and new organic matter gained during the short summer growing season

  2. Resulting in a net gain as plant photosynthesis and growth is greater than the carbon respired by plants and soil back into the atmosphere
• As permafrost soils remain frozen for long periods of time, they can store large amounts of carbon and other nutrients within their frozen framework for hundreds and even thousands of years
• Continued melting of the permafrost

  Results in an overall net carbon loss
• As the tundra peat thaws


  Increased microbial breakdown occurs, releasing greenhouse gases such as methane, into the atmosphere which feeds a positive feedback loop
• Periglacial and glacial flora and fauna

  • Low by global standards and under continued threat from global warming, risking the loss of important genetic or chemical material that could benefit engineering, science or food sectors
• High albedo effect of glaciated regions

  • Ensures that insolation is reflected which helps to maintain a heat deficit within polar regions, thus protecting specialised and adapted flora and fauna, but more importantly act as a global climate regulator
• Goods provided by glaciated ecosystems

  • Fish from the Southern and Arctic oceans for local and international use
  • Wild food from the seasonal hunting of seal, caribou and reindeer
  • Whaling in the past provided many goods and is now banned except for scientific purposes but Japan still hunts in the Antarctic waters
• Glaciated ecosystems


  • Provide cultural, aesthetic and spiritual value as they are mostly unspoilt wilderness with Creation Stories linked to their vast landscape and open, dark skies
• Human activities have direct and indirect impacts through removing vegetation, building of infrastructure and indirectly through pollution has brought into question if the value of polar ecosystems are irreversibly damaged