Mountain Glaciers Recharge Vital Aquifers

Mountain glaciers may play a more important role in drier areas than previously thought.

Small mountain glaciers play a big role in recharging vital aquifers and in keeping rivers flowing during the winter, according to a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

The study also suggests that the accelerated melting of mountain glaciers in recent decades may explain a phenomenon that has long puzzled scientists -- why Arctic and sub-Arctic rivers have increased their water flow during the winter even without a correlative increase in rain or snowfall.

"I think that mountain glaciers in the Arctic and sub-Arctic have really been underappreciated as a source of water to the landscape," said Anna Liljedahl, the lead author and an associate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Water and Environmental Research Center.

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