The next EGU General Assembly, traditionally held each spring in Vienna, Austria, will take place entirely online as vEGU21: Gather Online (#vEGU21) from 19–30 April 2021. This virtual event will bring together geoscientists from all over the world at one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary, and space sciences.
The deadline for early registration is 31 March 2021.
MRI Session
Risks from a changing cryosphere, and mountains under global change (Session ID: CR5.4/CL3.2.9/NH1.12)
Convener: Christian Huggel (MRI Co-PI)
Co-Conveners: Carolina Adler (MRI Executive Director), Michael Krautblatter, Gabrielle Vance (MRI), Matthew Westoby
The global cryosphere with all its components is strongly impacted by climate change and has been undergoing significant changes over the past decades. Glaciers are shrinking and thinning. Snow cover and duration is reduced, and permafrost, in both Arctic and mountain environments, is thawing. Changes in sea ice cover and characteristics have attracted widespread attention, and changes in ice sheets are monitored with care and concern. Risks associated with one or several of these cryosphere components have been present throughout history. However, with ongoing climate change, we expect changes in the magnitude and frequency of hazards with profound implications for risks, especially when these interact with other aspects relating to context vulnerability, exposure, and other processes of biophysical and/or socioeconomic drivers of change. New or growing glacier lakes pose a threat to downstream communities through the potential for sudden drainage. Thawing permafrost can destabilize mountain slopes, and eventually result in large landslide or destructive rock and ice avalanches. An accelerated rate of permafrost degradation in low-land areas poses risk to existing and planned infrastructure and raises concerns about large-scale emission of greenhouse gases currently trapped in Arctic permafrost. Decreased summertime sea ice extent may produce both risks and opportunities in terms of large-scale climate feedbacks and alterations, coastal vulnerability, and new access to transport routes and natural resources. Furthermore, rapid acceleration of outlet glacier ice discharge and collapse of ice sheets is of major concern for sea level change. This session invites contributions across all cryosphere components that address risks associated with observed or projected physical processes. Contributions considering more than one cryosphere component (e.g. glaciers and permafrost) are particularly encouraged, as well as contributions on cascading processes and interconnected risks. Contributions can consider hazards and risks related to changes in the past, present or future. Furthermore, Contributions may consider one or several components of risks (i.e. natural hazards, exposure, vulnerability) as long as conceptual clarity is ensured. Furthermore, cases that explore diverse experiences with inter- and transdisciplinary research, that sought to address these risks with communities through adaptation and resilience building, are also to be considered.
Other mountain-relevant sessions at vEGU21: Gather Online
Meso-scale convection and disturbances in high-mountain environments
Erosion, Weathering, and Sediment Transport in Mountain Landscapes
Interactions between tectonics, climate and surface processes from mountain belts to basins
Mountain hydrology under global change: monitoring, modelling and adaptation
Mountain trail impact on soil degradation, vegetation changes and fauna disturbance
Multi-hazards in mountain regions: From monitoring to triggering threshold definition
Secondary Ice Production in Cold Clouds: Theoretical concept, Observations and Modelling
Climate and environmental change: Africa’s past, present and future
Responding to change: Propagation of environmental signals during landscape transience
Multi-scale Investigation of sediment transport processes in geophysical flows
Advances in fluvial erosion mechanics – from rolling sediment to bedrock wear
Geomorphic consequences of land cover dynamics in hillslope environments
Advances in modelling of erosion processes, sediment dynamics, and landscape evolution
Glaciations and their terrestrial sedimentary records
Geodynamics of plate convergences
The Third Pole Environment (TPE) under global changes
Central Asian Tectonics – Pamir, Tian Shan and Tibet from Paleozoic to Present
Orogenic plateaus and plateau margins
Inheritance control on tectonic plate boundaries
Salt and Shale Tectonics : Recent advances and challenges
Seismic imaging and monitoring of state and dynamics of the cryosphere
Evolution of debris covered glacier land systems
Risks from a changing cryosphere
Snow avalanche formation: from snow mechanics to avalanche detection
Modelling and measuring snow processes across scales
Glaciation and climate change in the Andean Cordillera
Glacier Monitoring from In-situ and Remotely Sensed Observations
Observing and modelling glaciers at regional to global scales
Subglacial Environments of Ice Sheets and Glaciers
Solving differential equations in parallel with Julia
Mobilization of permafrost material to aquatic systems and its biogeochemical fate
Soil-forming processes from microscopic to landscape scale and the role of dust input on pedogenesis
Surface-Deep Earth Interactions: Integrated Datasets and Coupled Processes Modeling
Vulnerability, loss and damage modelling of the built environment
Natural regeneration in a changing environment: plant and soil feedbacks in forest ecosystems
Remote sensing for flood dynamics monitoring and flood mapping
Asian Monsoon dynamics and Atmospheric Composition
Debris flows: advances on mechanics, controlling factors, monitoring, modelling and risk management
View the vEGU21: Gather Online programme here.
Each session shows the abstract submission link. Using this link, log in to the Copernicus Office Meeting Organizer with your Copernicus Office user ID. An abstract processing charge (APC) of €40.00 gross will be levied. Only 2021 EGU members will be able to submit abstracts to the 2021 meeting and, with a few exceptions, only one abstract as first author will be permitted.
Find detailed information on how to submit an abstract here.
Key Dates
3 November 2020: Abstract submission opens
20 January 2021, 13:00 CET: Abstract submission closes
31 March 2021: Deadline early registration
19-30 April 2021 vEGU21: Gather Online
30 April 2021: MRI vEGU session
Find more information on the official homepage of vEGU21: Gather Online.
Photo by Pixabay
