SAMAYA x ICE & LIFE
SCIENCE TO PROTECT GLACIERS
In 2022 and 2023, the Ice & Life project carried out field campaigns on several glaciers in Haute-Savoie, in order to compile naturalist data on the ecological state of these areas and better protect them. With the last mission completed in summer 2023, project manager Kenzo Héas shares his experience of the realities in the field.
Kenzo Heas: The main aim of Ice & Life is to improve our knowledge so that we can better protect the environment. It's a project that aims to develop multidisciplinary scientific knowledge of glaciers and the ecosystems that follow their retreat, known as post-glacial ecosystems.
In the field, we carry out inventories of fauna, through opportunistic naturalist observations. For remote glaciers, these are often the first observations made in these areas. We spend a lot of time observing the fauna we georeference. We also carry out bird abundance surveys. We choose proglacial margins, i.e. the space between the glacier's limit in 1850, the "Little Ice Age", and the current glacier front. We place a GPS point within this zone and record everything we have visual and auditory contact with. This operation is repeated several times per proglacial margin.
Finally, we carry out flora inventories, listing all the plants found in these environments at different distances from the glacier.
In the field, we carry out inventories of fauna, through opportunistic naturalist observations. For remote glaciers, these are often the first observations made in these areas. We spend a lot of time observing the fauna we georeference. We also carry out bird abundance surveys. We choose proglacial margins, i.e. the space between the glacier's limit in 1850, the "Little Ice Age", and the current glacier front. We place a GPS point within this zone and record everything we have visual and auditory contact with. This operation is repeated several times per proglacial margin.
Finally, we carry out flora inventories, listing all the plants found in these environments at different distances from the glacier.
KH: We carried out field campaigns in 2022 and 2023, to see what kind of biodiversity develops in these newly de-glaciated areas. In total, we surveyed 27 glacier systems over two years, mostly in the Mont Blanc massif and the Aiguilles Rouges massif.
We carry out our inventories in protected areas such as nature reserves and unprotected areas, in the legal sense of the term. Unprotected areas are subject to potential degradation due to human activity and the installation of new infrastructures. Our inventories and field diagnoses provide information on the state of these environments, which are subject to varying degrees of anthropization and frequentation.
This is the work we have carried out at the Tré-la-Tête glacier, in the Contamines Montjoie reserve, a protected area subject to regulations. On the other hand, other proglacial margins where we have worked are veritable open-air garbage dumps, such as Lognan, above the Grands Montets pass in Chamonix, a recently de-glaciated area containing ski resort waste and remodelling of the terrain, showing the great degradation of this area. Here we have two sites from the same massif, with different levels of degradation, depending on the territoriality of the protection.
We carry out our inventories in protected areas such as nature reserves and unprotected areas, in the legal sense of the term. Unprotected areas are subject to potential degradation due to human activity and the installation of new infrastructures. Our inventories and field diagnoses provide information on the state of these environments, which are subject to varying degrees of anthropization and frequentation.
This is the work we have carried out at the Tré-la-Tête glacier, in the Contamines Montjoie reserve, a protected area subject to regulations. On the other hand, other proglacial margins where we have worked are veritable open-air garbage dumps, such as Lognan, above the Grands Montets pass in Chamonix, a recently de-glaciated area containing ski resort waste and remodelling of the terrain, showing the great degradation of this area. Here we have two sites from the same massif, with different levels of degradation, depending on the territoriality of the protection.
For the final campaign of summer 2023, you spent a lot of time in the mountains.
How does the bivouac experience fit in with your research?
How does the bivouac experience fit in with your research?
KH: Our entire summer field campaign took place in bivouacs. We mainly used the Samaya NANO BIVY, as long as it wasn't raining, otherwise we took shelter in our tents. We brought a lot of equipment with us, including binoculars and books on flora and fauna. So we had to save kilograms elsewhere, and the bivy was a small revolution for us because it's so light.
Once the empirical evidence has been gathered and the situation assessed, how can we move on from observing and compiling data to actually protecting areas?
KH: To take this project to the macro level, we are developing a number of scientific partnerships with Swiss glacier modellers who, using IPCC scenarios and sub-glacial topography, predict what the glaciers will be like as the century progresses. Based on these models, we are highlighting the different types of ecosystems that will develop after the glaciers, be they fjords, terrestrial, forests, moors, grasslands or lacustrine, as well as the speed of these changes.
In order to protect these glaciers, we are working with local stakeholders to change attitudes, by explaining precisely these phenomena and their impacts. We encourage people to see nature as a common good rather than a resource subject to privatization. The message we get across at local level is that glaciers and their successor systems are a breeding ground for biodiversity, and that it is imperative to protect them, both environmentally and economically. These areas are a refuge for nature and a guarantor of water resources, essential for every living being on this planet.
In order to protect these glaciers, we are working with local stakeholders to change attitudes, by explaining precisely these phenomena and their impacts. We encourage people to see nature as a common good rather than a resource subject to privatization. The message we get across at local level is that glaciers and their successor systems are a breeding ground for biodiversity, and that it is imperative to protect them, both environmentally and economically. These areas are a refuge for nature and a guarantor of water resources, essential for every living being on this planet.
