The cryosphere

The shrinking cryosphere demands collaborative and inclusive approaches to improve our knowledge of its dynamics amidst climate change.

We must prioritize diversity, scientific communication and team-based science to keep up with rapid Antarctic ice and climate change.

Even though approaches to artificially reduce local glacier melt have been developed, they face considerable challenges on the larger scale. To mitigate the negative effects of an imminent loss of mountain glaciers, preserving the ice by reducing greenhouse gas emissions remains the most effective solution.

Not accounting for coupled land–water carbon fluxes can lead to flawed understanding and incorrect assessments of climate impact and feedback on the Arctic carbon cycle. There is a need for collaborative studies, between scientific disciplines and approaches, that integrate carbon transformations and fluxes across the Arctic land–water continuum.

Mountain communities are at risk of various climate change-related disasters, including glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). Effective GLOF risk identification and management require a holistic consideration of the diverse controls and drivers of GLOFs. This Comment outlines primary challenges related to rapidly changing mountains and complex system response.

For millennia, permafrost landscapes have gradually grown the foundation for a capillary hydrologic system. It is now being activated by unusual warmth.

Fieldwork isn’t just about collecting data — it’s a deeply immersive experience that connects cryosphere researchers directly to the landscapes they study. Each moment in the field, across the permafrost, snow, and glaciers, fosters a profound appreciation for the responses of these environments to the changing climate and human activities. Nature Water asked three experts about their experiences and insights into fieldwork.

Detailed modelling elucidates how increased vegetation water use in a warmer climate will reduce groundwater recharge, storage and subsequent exfiltration to further exacerbate declines in Colorado mountain headwater streamflow.

This Perspective reviews the current understanding of groundwater recharge by meltwater, discusses the scales at which cryosphere–groundwater interactions are relevant, identifies key cryo-hydrogeological processes that need further study, and emphasizes the critical importance of these interactions for current and future water availability in mountain regions.

The interactions between microplastics and freshwater snow can influence the way in which both particle types settle in freshwater environments. Advanced and automated tracking techniques show that agglomerates of the two particles settle faster than the individual components alone, underscoring the potential repercussions on biogeochemical cycles.

This study employs a high-resolution, integrated hydrological model extending 400 m into the subsurface. Application of the model in a representative headwater basin in the Colorado River shows that groundwater storage loss will amplify streamflow losses in a warmer world.