Climate Change and the Rocky Mountains - Impact of Global Changes on Mountains: Responses and Adaptation - page 449

the Rocky Mountains, has receded more than 1.5 km in the last 125 years and
lost more than 50% of its volume as it continues to drain the Columbia Ice
Field. Because it is close to the Ice Fields Parkway, a major tourist destination,
it is likely the most visited glacier in North America and has accelerated in
its retreat since 1980. The melting glaciers of the Rocky Mountains clearly
signal changes at the topographic apex of mountain ecosystems that cascade
downward and throughout other system components.
Booth (2011) modeled glacier ice mass balance for all glaciers in the
headwaters of the North Saskatchewan watershed along the Continental
divide in Jasper National Park, Alberta. That study used a series of climate
scenarios representing the likely range of future climate for that region as
forecast by a number of global circulation models. Their results presented
in Fig. 20.3, show that under all future scenarios glacier ice mass in the
northern Rockies will likely continue to shrink to very modest volumes
isolated in high mountain locations.

BCCR_A2
CSIRO_B2
MIRO_B1

CCMA_A2
MIRO_A1B
Average GCM ensemble

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0

1980 2000 2020 2040 2060 2080 2100 2120

Year

Figure 20.3. Expected decline in ice mass through 2100 in the North Saskatchewan headwaters
in Jasper National Park, Alberta for a range of possible future climate scenarios (Booth 2011).
The lesser rates of decline will occur if and only if humanity is successful in substantial
decreases in greenhouse gas emissions. The worst climate scenarios shows most of the alpine
glaciers ice mass will be gone by 2040 .

Glaciers and rare alpine invertebrate—Lednia tumana

Alpine aquatic species are important to regional biodiversity in the Rocky
Mountains. One species that may be particularly vulnerable to climate
change is the meltwater stonefl y Lednia tumana —a macro invertebrate