Glacial Ecosystems

Glaciers can be of great importance to surrounding ecosystems, with native American species of fish and amphibians such as Bull Trout, Coastal Cutthroat Trout and Tailed Frogs using glacially fed streams as key habitats. Glacially fed streams are different to those that flow from ice-free valleys due to the fact that glaciers melt a lot in warm summers (therefore generating lots of cool meltwater) and provide little water during wet winters. This therefore means that there is only a small level of annual variation in streamflow of glacial streams as opposed to non-glacial streams which tend to dry up in summer. Additionally, the glacial flour that occurs in glacial meltwater provides key nutrients for aquatic microbial life, although negatively it does reduce sunlight levels within the stream, therefore affecting some aquatic plants and animals (thus providing a very different habitat to non-glacial streams). As a glacier recedes (in the case of climate change) new habitats are provided where a glacier once lay.

 Glacial Flour