Articles | Volume 13, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-935-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-13-935-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| Highlight paper
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01 Jun 2022
Research article | Highlight paper |
| 01 Jun 2022
| 01 Jun 2022
Glacial runoff buffers droughts through the 21st century
Department of Geology, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, USA
Sloan Coats
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hawaii at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, USA
Jonathan Mackay
British Geological Survey, Environmental Science Centre, Keyworth, UK
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, UK
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Short summary
Global climate models suggest that droughts could worsen over the coming century. In mountain basins with glaciers, glacial runoff can ease droughts, but glaciers are retreating worldwide. We analyzed how one measure of drought conditions changes when accounting for glacial runoff that changes over time. Surprisingly, we found that glacial runoff can continue to buffer drought throughout the 21st century in most cases, even as the total amount of runoff declines.
Global climate models suggest that droughts could worsen over the coming century. In mountain...
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