• » The Disappearing Glacier: Climate Change and Himalayan Ecology (PBS)
• » Filling In the Blanks on Himalayan Glaciers (NYTimes)
• » Glaciers largely stable in one range of Himalayas (sciencenews.org)
• » Scientists Find that Debris on Certain Himalayan Glaciers May Prevent Melting (UCSB Featured News)

A new study shows that debris coverage –– pebbles, rocks, and other debris from surrounding mountains –– may be a missing link in helping to understand the decline of glaciers. “With the aid of new remote-sensing methods and satellite images, we identified debris coverage to be an important contributor to glacial advance and retreat behaviors,” said Bodo Bookhagen, assistant professor in the department of geography. “This parameter has been almost completely neglected in previous Himalayan and other mountainous region studies, although its impact has been known for some time.”

Bodo Bookhagen co-authored a paper on this topic in Nature Geoscience, published this week. The first author is Dirk Scherler, Bookhagen's graduate student from Germany, who performed part of this research while studying at UCSB. READ MORE