New PCIC Science Brief: On Changes to Glaciers in Western Canada

This PCIC Science Brief covers two recent papers by Beedle et al. (2015) and Clarke et al. (2015) examining changes to glaciers in western Canada. Publishing in the journal The Cryosphere, Beedle et al. use photographic methods to quantify changes to 33 glaciers in the Cariboo Mountains. They find that all of the glaciers receded over the 1952-2005 period, with an average loss in surface area of about 0.19% per year. Clarke et al.’s work is published in Nature Geoscience and uses a regional glaciation model driven by global climate model output to examine possible future changes to glaciers in western Canada. Their projections show a reduction of about 70% in glacier volume by the year 2100 compared to 2005, with the largest losses occurring around 2020 to 2040.

Read this Science Brief.

Beedle, M.J., B. Menounos and R. Wheate, 2015: Glacier change in the Cariboo Mountains, British Columbia, Canada (1952–2005). The Cryosphere, 9, 65-80, doi:10.5194/tc-9-65-2015.

Clarke, G.K.C., A.H. Jarosch, F.S. Anslow, V. Radić and B. Menounos, 2015: Projected deglaciation of western Canada in the twenty-first century. Nature Geoscience, 8, 372–377, doi:10.1038/ngeo2407