Mountain glaciers are projected to largely disappear by the end of the 21st century. Where vanishing glaciers interact with the inhabited landscape, societies face new challenges to ensure water availability, slope stability, energy production, tourism, and other essential ecosystem services. Yet, the new land emerging as a result of glacier retreat presents an opportunity for novel high-alpine ecosystems to migrate upward under the effects of warming.

My dissertation research investigates how physical, ecological, and social processes interact to drive ecosystem changes in alpine proglacial landscapes and how these inform the best adaptation strategies.  I mixed explanatory and experimental approaches and employ a multiscale approach that combines in situ plot surveys, near ground remote sensing, soil temperature monitoring, laboratory analyses, and measurements with UAV high-resolution aerial imagery.