Science Source
River piracy and drainage basin reorganization led by climate-driven glacier retreat
- States that stream piracy has been investigated in glacial environments, but so far it has mainly been studied over Quaternary or longer timescales
- Documents how retreat of Kaskawulsh Glacier—one of Canada’s largest glaciers—abruptly and radically altered the regional drainage pattern in spring 2016
- Uses hydrological measurements and drone-generated digital elevation models to show that in late May 2016, meltwater from the glacier was re-routed from discharge in a northward direction into the Bering Sea, to southward into the Pacific Ocean
- Concludes that this instance of river piracy was due to post-industrial climate change, based on satellite image analysis and a signal-to-noise ratio as a metric of glacier retreat
- Emphasizes potential downstream impacts on ecosystems, sediment and carbon budgets, and communities that rely on a stable and sustained discharge
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