The impact of rock glaciers on the runoff of alpine catchments in protected areas of Austria
Thomas Wagner, University of Graz (AT)
Due to the coarse blocky upper layers, surface flow is usually absent across rock glaciers. Water infiltrates into these landforms from their respective catchment and is released at springs in a more dampened/modified way due to storage capacities of rock glaciers. Research of the recent years has indicated that the storage capacities of especially relict rock glaciers can have important impacts on the downstream sections of an alpine headwater and the fragile ecosystem therein. Here we report on these findings with a focus on the alpine environments protected by the National Parks of Austria.