The study found that ice began to melt twice as fast as glaciers reached the peak of the Little Ice Age.
Climate change has had a significant impact onprocess of melting glaciers. Not only do local communities depend on glaciers for fresh water, hydropower and irrigation, but this process also contributes to global sea level rise.
Researchers compared digital modelsglacier surfaces and found that ice loss has doubled since the Little Ice Age. Glaciers began to melt especially quickly in the last 40 years.
Up to 17% of the volume that was present in Malyice age, was only lost between 1978 and 2019. In 2019, only 12% of the ice mass remains from what it was before.
These results quantifyice loss trend in New Zealand. The accelerating rate of ice mass loss may only get worse as not only climate but other local effects become more pronounced, such as more debris accumulating on the surface of glaciers and lakes at the bottom of glaciers swelling, exacerbating melting.
Jonathan Carrivick, study author from the School of Geography
Carrivick noted that it is now necessary to draw upplan to reduce the amount of water that flows into local rivers from the glacier as it impacts local water quality as well as availability, landscape sustainability and aquatic ecosystems.
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