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Reply to: Glacial ecosystems are essential to understanding biodiversity responses to glacier retreat

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 688–689 (2020)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 30 March 2020

replying to M. Stibal et al. Nature Ecology & Evolution https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1163-0 (2020)

Until recently, glaciers had the unfortunate reputation of being devoid of life. However, as noted in the commentary of Stibal et al.1, there is now compelling evidence that glaciers should be recognized as a specific biome. We agree with Stibal et al. on the necessity to improve our knowledge of glacial habitat biodiversity at a global scale and to consider the continuum from glacial to glacier-fed ecosystems to enhance our understanding of ecological changes following deglaciation. To address the points raised in Stibal et al., here we clarify why glacial biodiversity was not taken into account in our study2, repeat the connection between glacial and glacier-fed adjacent ecosystems and urge the scientific community to enrich our ecological understanding of glacier extinction.

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Acknowledgements

We thank J. Diamond for constructive suggestions on a previous version of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. INRAE, UR RIVERLY, Centre de Lyon-Villeurbanne, Villeurbanne Cedex, France

    Sophie Cauvy-Fraunié

  2. Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, UMR 5175, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier, EPHE, IRD, Montpellier, France

    Olivier Dangles

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  1. Sophie Cauvy-Fraunié
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S.C.-F. and O.D. wrote the article.

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Correspondence to Sophie Cauvy-Fraunié.

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Cauvy-Fraunié, S., Dangles, O. Reply to: Glacial ecosystems are essential to understanding biodiversity responses to glacier retreat. Nat Ecol Evol 4, 688–689 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-020-1164-z

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