The end of the eternal snows: Integrative mapping of 100 years of glacier retreat in the Venezuelan Andes

Ramírez, Nerio; Melfo, Alejandra; Resler, Lynn M.; Llambí, Luis Daniel

doi:10.1080/15230430.2020.1822728

Cited by 16 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Venezuela will soon be the first Andean country to lose all of its glaciers. Ramírez et al (2020) showed that glaciers in the Sierra Nevada de Mérida, where the highest peaks in the country are located, have lost 99% of their area since 1910. There is only one remaining ice mass at Humboldt Peak (4,942 m asl), which has lost 98.7 % of its surface since 1910, with an area for 2019 of only 0.0454 Km 2 (Ramírez et al, 2020).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation Assembly, Adaptive Strategies and Positive Interactions During Primary Succession in the Forefield of the Last Venezuelan Glacier

et al. 2021

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Glaciers are receding at unprecedented rates in the alpine tropics, opening-up new areas for ecosystem assembly. However, little is known about the patterns/mechanisms of primary succession during the last stages of glacier retreat in tropical mountains. Our aim was to analyze soil development and vegetation assembly during primary succession, and the role of changing adaptive strategies and facilitative interactions on these processes at the forefront of the last Venezuelan glacier (Humboldt Peak, 4,940 m asl). We established a chronosequence of four sites where the glacier retreated between 1910 and 2009. We compared soil organic matter (SOM), nutrients and temperatures inside vs. outside biological soil crusts (BSCs) at each site, estimated the cover of lichen, bryophyte and vascular plant species present, and analyzed changes in their growth-form abundance and species/functional turnover. We also evaluated local spatial associations between lichens/bryophytes and the dominant ruderal vascular plant (the grass Poa petrosa). We found a progressive increase in SOM during the first century of succession, while BSCs only had a positive buffering effect on superficial soil temperatures. Early seral stages were dominated by lichens and bryophytes, while vascular plant cover remained low during the first six decades, and was almost exclusively represented by wind dispersed/pollinated grasses. There was a general increase in species richness along the chronosequence, but it declined in late succession for lichens. Lichen and bryophyte communities exhibited a higher species turnover than vascular plants, resulting in the loss of some pioneer specialists as succession progressed. Lichen and bryophyte species were positively associated with safe-sites for the colonization of the dominant ruderal grass, suggesting a possible facilitation effect. Our results indicate that lichens and bryophytes play a key role as pioneers in these high tropical alpine environments. The limited initial colonization of vascular plants and the progressive accumulation of species and growth-forms (i.e., direct succession) could be linked to a combination of severe environmental filtering during early seral stages and limitations for zoochoric seed dispersal and entomophilic/ornithophilic pollination. This could potentially result in a slow successional response of these ecosystems to accelerated glacier loss and climate change.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Vegetation Assembly, Adaptive Strategies and Positive Interactions During Primary Succession in the Forefield of the Last Venezuelan Glacier

et al. 2021

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“…In this region of South America, glaciers lost 1.0 ± 05 Gt/year between 2000 and 2018 (Dussaillant et al 2019 ). One of the most dramatic examples of the consequences of global warming on the cryosphere can be found in Venezuela, the first country in the world to have lost all of its glaciers (Braun and Bezada 2013 ; Ramírez et al 2020 ) (Fig. 1 ).…”

Section: Glacier Thawingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…a La Corona glacier, then covering Humboldt and Bonpland peaks, seen from Pico Espejo in 1910 (Jahn 1925); b Same view in 2019 ( Copyright Luis Daniel Llambí, with permission). c Surface area for La Corona glacier (covering Humboltd and Bonpland peaks) between 1910 and 2019 (Copyright Alejandra Melfo, adapted from Ramírez et al 2020 ) …”

Section: Glacier Thawingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Copyright Luis Daniel Llambí, with permission). c Surface area for La Corona glacier (covering Humboltd and Bonpland peaks) between 1910 and 2019 (Copyright Alejandra Melfo, adapted from Ramírez et al 2020 ) …”

Section: Glacier Thawingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Natural ecosystems –including frozen ones- are a vast source of genes, particularly resistance genes, some of which are supposed to be completely unknown (Wright 2010 ). In the case of glaciers, even the most pristine and remote have been shown to contain an astonishing amount of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms, able to thrive in vitro in the presence of high doses of antibiotics, once reactivated (Ushida et al 2010 ; Segawa et al 2013 ; Ball et al 2014 ; Rondón et al 2016 ; Tan et al 2018 ; Rafiq et al 2019 ; Ramírez et al 2020 ).…”

Section: Antibiotic-resistance Genes In the Cryospherementioning

confidence: 99%

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Climate change, melting cryosphere and frozen pathogens: Should we worry…?

Yarzábal

Salazar

Batista-García

2021

Environmental Sustainability

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Permanently frozen environments (glaciers, permafrost) are considered as natural reservoirs of huge amounts of microorganisms, mostly dormant, including human pathogens. Due to global warming, which increases the rate of ice-melting, approximately 4 × 10 21 of these microorganisms are released annually from their frozen confinement and enter natural ecosystems, in close proximity to human settlements. Some years ago, the hypothesis was put forward that this massive release of potentially-pathogenic microbes—many of which disappeared from the face of the Earth thousands and even millions of years ago—could give rise to epidemics. The recent anthrax outbreaks that occurred in Siberia, and the presence of bacterial and viral pathogens in glaciers worldwide, seem to confirm this hypothesis. In that context, the present review summarizes the currently available scientific evidence that allows us to imagine a near future in which epidemic outbreaks, similar to the abovementioned, could occur as a consequence of the resurrection and release of microbes from glaciers and permafrost. Supplementary Information The online version of this article (10.1007/s42398-021-00184-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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