Ice River Photo Editor - Frame

The ice circle was pretty captivating Messer shared with Colossal. You can hear the sound of the river flowing continuously. Sounds from the ice periodically interjected with very small sharp cracks and groans. Overall, it was a quiet experience to stand along the river watching the ice circle rotate. Ice circles are a fairly rare phenomenon that occurs mostly in North America and Scandinavia in slow-moving rivers during the winter. The discs are formed when a large piece of ice breaks off in the river creating an effect called rotational shear where the current slowly grinds away at the free-floating chunk until it’s smoothed into a perfect circle.

River ice cover not only affects rivers during the winter but can also influence both physical and biological processes throughout the year including the timing and duration of ecological productivity under-ice light availability and the mixing and distribution of nutrients. Although many rivers around the world experience crusting of ice during winter months. The duration of the ice cover is shrinking. Freezing and earlier melting of river ice but few studies have delved into what changing ice conditions might mean for river ecology, especially in smaller river systems and ecosystem processes like nutrient cycling and productivity.

Now a new study looks at how ice cover and duration affect ecosystems. They found the formation and duration of river ice cover depended on the interaction of climate river characteristics including flow size and slope or gradient and the connectivity of river water to groundwater systems. The breakup of ice is primarily temperature driven with big swings of temperature leading to mechanical breakup and slow temperature changes leading to gradual melting.

That earlier river ice breakup appears to be most influential for productivity in small rivers. Earlier river ice breakup can increase productivity in the ecosystem but more frequent ice breakup events during winter can have a disruptive effect on the streambed ecosystem. They note that future research should focus on river processes during the winter months, especially on ice processes in smaller river systems for which other forms of data like satellite imagery are not available specifically.

A frozen river can make the perfect photo op to inspire the urge to go for a skate or even serve as an important seasonal transportation route to otherwise inaccessible areas. Not only do ice-covered rivers benefit people they also play an important role in surrounding river habitats. Ice jams or build-ups of ice that inhibit normal flow play valuable roles when they form during the spring melt by transporting freshwater, nutrients, and sediments through flooding events. The seasonal freezing of river water can even regulate the global carbon cycle by trapping and slowing carbon emissions from inland water during the winter months. These many functions of frozen rivers are largely unknown as was the true extent of global river ice cover until recently.

For centuries glaciers have inspired awe and wonder. The idea that human assault might ever triumph over such powerful features of our natural landscape seemed almost unimaginable. But now climate change is disrupting the ecological balance of the Tibetan Plateau and the mighty glaciers of the Himalayas are disappearing.

Rivers of Ice Vanishing Glaciers of the Greater Himalaya showcases the work of photographers and mountaineers. Rivers of Ice displays his recent photographs alongside the corresponding historic images revealing the alarming loss in ice mass that has taken place over the intervening years.

The snow and ice stored within the magnificent arc of high altitude glaciers in the Greater Himalayas are crucial sources of seasonal water for almost every major river system of Asia from the Indus in the west to the Yellow in the east with the Ganges, Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong and Yangtze Rivers between.