Responses of various-sized alpine glaciers and runoff to climatic change

Abstract

This paper presents a glacier ice-flow model that simulates changes to alpine glaciers of various sizes and their runoff response to climate change in the Yili river basin in the Tien Shan mountains, northwestern China. It is suggested that the sensitivity of glaciers to climatic change is determined by glacier size. The change in glacial runoff does not keep pace with climatic change. As climate warms and glaciers retreat, the glacier runoff tends to increase and then decrease. The runoff peak and its timing depend not only on glacier size but also on the rate of air-temperature rise.