Impacts of Climate Change on the Cryosphere

Overview

The impacts of climate change on the cryosphere concern how rising global temperatures affect the parts of the Earth covered by snow and ice, including polar ice sheets, mountain glaciers, sea ice, permafrost, and seasonal snow cover. As the climate warms, glaciers and ice sheets lose mass, sea ice diminishes, and snowmelt patterns shift, contributing to sea level rise, altered freshwater supplies, and changes to ecosystems and communities that depend on ice and snow. Thawing permafrost can also release stored greenhouse gases, creating feedbacks that further influence the climate. As a topic within the study of Weather Changes, the cryosphere is a sensitive indicator of a changing climate, and its decline has wide-ranging consequences for coastal flooding, water availability, and global circulation. Research relevant to this area examines how warming affects ice and snow, the resulting impacts on sea level, hydrology, and habitats, and the broader environmental and human consequences of these changes. This page gathers peer-reviewed, open-access research relevant to the cryosphere and the effects of climate change on snow and ice.

Research published in this journal

4 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.

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