Hester Jiskoot - About - Research Questions

My main research program tries to answer the following questions

How do tributary glaciers that flow into another glacier, called ‘trunk’, affect the movement and health of that trunk glacier, and vice versa?
Can tributary glaciers for example periodically restrict or block the flow of a main glacier and cause ice flow instabilities such as glacier surging?
How do glacier systems disintegrate, or break apart into smaller glaciers, in response to climate change?
Do complex glacier systems behave fundamentally different than simple glacier systems?
How have the Clemenceau and Chaba Icefield glaciers, a remote glaciated area in the Canadian Rockies, retreated in the last 100 years, how did their geometry change, and how did glacier fragmentation affect the overall retreat rate and ice flow behaviour of these glaciers?
What are the changes in and sensitivity of glaciers peripheral to the Greenland Ice Sheet, specifically the large ice masses in East Greenland, to recent and predicted changes in climate, ocean and Arctic sea ice?
What are the controls on ice flow instabilities, and are these factors fixed or dynamic in space and time?
Can we improve predictions of glacier changes and their effects on our world?

Can we detect trends in snowfall, glacier behaviour and meltwater runoff measurements from the Canadian Rocky Mountains since recordings started?
Will increased knowledge of relations between water supply from ice and snow and water in downstream river systems help us predict future changes to our water quality and quantity?
How can we detect, characterize and predict slope instabilities (rockfall) in glaciated environments, what does this mean for sediment budgets, and is there evidence for climate-related trends?
How did Pleistocene Glaciation and glacial refugia relate to migration and isolation of animal species, and how did patterns of glacial retreat relate to postglacial migration and evolution in these species?