Daniel Gaudio (Durham University) and Mauro Gobbi (MUSE-Science Museum of Trento) explore the impact of retreating glaciers on ecology, heritage and bioarchaeology in their new article in Nature and Culture.
How are melting glaciers, bioarchaeology, forensic anthropology, archaeological heritage protection, ecology, biodiversity conservation and climate change all interconnected?
In the article "Glaciers in the Anthropocene. A Biocultural View" just published in Nature and Culture the authors, Daniel Gaudio (Durham University) and Mauro Gobbi (MUSE-Science Museum of Trento) explore the criticality and potential that the retreat of Alpine glaciers is offering from a biocultural perspective.
Glaciers are powerful cultural symbols linked to the philosophical and ethical dimensions of climate change (Morehouse and Cigliano, 2019). In this paper, the authors merged their different but complementary expertise (biological anthropology and ecology) to discuss the side effects of the glacier melt: what we are losing but also, paradoxically, what we could “gain” if we were able to understand more deeply, and with an interdisciplinary approach, glacial dynamics and their role for human society.
First World War rifle bullets released by alpine glaciers. Photo: Daniel Gaudio.
Moving from the Southern European Alps to a global context the authors provide a focus on bio-anthropological and archaeological finds that are increasingly being released from melting ice. Among these finds are human remains from past and recent times, including victims of WWI. Human remains and archaeological finds need careful recovery, to be able to reconstruct the individual fates and stories of the people who disappeared on the ice and to safeguard the historical and archaeological heritage that the retreating ice is slowly returning. The authors also explore other more elusive, but equally important, aspects of glacier loss, such as their memorial and even spiritual function.
Glaciers are also habitats in which there is exclusive biodiversity, organisms perfectly adapted to living in extreme conditions, and for this reason at risk of extinction. At the same time, the retreat of the glaciers is freeing up new land. This phenomenon is therefore making it possible to understand how and when nature reacts by colonising these areas that are gradually seeing the disappearance of glaciers. As the authors concluded:
“We must treasure glaciers because it is highly likely that we are experiencing our last chance to study them. We also need to be ready to protect the new environment that is emerging due to the glaciers’ decline. Traces of our history are hidden there.”
Find out more using the links below:
Read the article in Nature and Culture
Learn more about the work of Dr. Daniel Gaudio
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