TY - JOUR
T1 - The disappearing cryosphere
T2 - Impacts and ecosystem responses to rapid cryosphere loss
AU - Fountain, Andrew G.
AU - Campbell, John L.
AU - Schuur, Edward A.G.
AU - Stammerjohn, Sharon E.
AU - Williams, Mark W.
AU - Ducklow, Hugh W.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank the funding provided by the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network for supporting our long-term studies, in which we track the ecosystem response to the disappearing cryosphere. The LTER Network office supported the workshop from which this article is derived. Table 2 and figure 3 were kindly contributed by Julia A. Jones, Kendra L. Hatcher, and Evan S. Miles. Valuable contributions were made by Mike Antolin, Anne Giblin, John Hobbie, John Magnusson, Anne Nolin, Bruce Peterson, Bill Sobczak, and Will Wolheim. We greatly appreciate all who participated. Fred Swanson offered many helpful suggestions, and David Foster carefully edited the manuscript (and it is much improved). NSF LTER Site Grants OPP 0823101, OPP 1115245, DEB 1114804, DEB-1026415, DEB-0620579, and DEB-1027341 supported the authors during the preparation of this article.
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - The cryosphere-the portion of the Earth's surface where water is in solid form for at least one month of the year-has been shrinking in response to climate warming. The extents of sea ice, snow, and glaciers, for example, have been decreasing. In response, the ecosystems within the cryosphere and those that depend on the cryosphere have been changing. We identify two principal aspects of ecosystem-level responses to cryosphere loss: (1) trophodynamic alterations resulting from the loss of habitat and species loss or replacement and (2) changes in the rates and mechanisms of biogeochemical storage and cycling of carbon and nutrients, caused by changes in physical forcings or ecological community functioning. These changes affect biota in positive or negative ways, depending on how they interact with the cryosphere. The important outcome, however, is the change and the response the human social system (infrastructure, food, water, recreation) will have to that change.
AB - The cryosphere-the portion of the Earth's surface where water is in solid form for at least one month of the year-has been shrinking in response to climate warming. The extents of sea ice, snow, and glaciers, for example, have been decreasing. In response, the ecosystems within the cryosphere and those that depend on the cryosphere have been changing. We identify two principal aspects of ecosystem-level responses to cryosphere loss: (1) trophodynamic alterations resulting from the loss of habitat and species loss or replacement and (2) changes in the rates and mechanisms of biogeochemical storage and cycling of carbon and nutrients, caused by changes in physical forcings or ecological community functioning. These changes affect biota in positive or negative ways, depending on how they interact with the cryosphere. The important outcome, however, is the change and the response the human social system (infrastructure, food, water, recreation) will have to that change.
KW - cryosphere
KW - ecosystem response
KW - environmental observatories
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U2 - 10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.11
DO - 10.1525/bio.2012.62.4.11
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84860184598
SN - 0006-3568
VL - 62
SP - 405
EP - 415
JO - BioScience
JF - BioScience
IS - 4
ER -