When a team of scientists from Nepal, the UK and Norway head to the Western Cwm on Everest next year, their goal will not be to summit the world’s highest mountain. Instead, they will be venturing above the notorious Khumbu Icefall, to drill into and take the temperature of the glacier at over 6000m altitude.
The groundbreaking expedition, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (part of UK Research and Innovation) is partly thanks to a grant awarded by the University of Leeds, through its International Strategy Fund (ISF). This fund supports Leeds researchers to build global partnerships that will help the University achieve its ambition to make a positive difference in the world.
Many areas that previously held ice have been replaced with rivers and lakes, as at Thulagi in Nepal. Credit: Duncan Quincey
Achieving impact
Professor of Glaciology at the University of Leeds, Duncan Quincey, explains: “Being able to build meaningful partnerships with local organisations from the Himalayan region strengthens and increases what can be achieved through our research. In particular, the connections that our partners have to local communities and to government can enable research findings to reach both the people most likely to be impacted and those who can enact policy to mitigate those impacts.”
One such organisation is the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), which works to address environmental challenges and reduce inequalities in the mountain regions across all the countries of the Hindu Kush Himalaya: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.
Building partnerships with organisations like ICIMOD is often not straightforward. Most funding awarded in the UK will only cover the costs of UK researchers, but organisations and institutions in the Global South cannot offer their time and resources for free.
The University of Leeds ISF grants help fill this gap. Professor Quincey was funded to build stronger links with ICIMOD and with two Nepali universities (Kathmandu University and Tribhuvan University) through a project supporting early-stage researchers and students in four Himalayan countries – India, Nepal, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Two European institutions with expertise in glaciology also joined the project: the universities of Lausanne in Switzerland and Bergen in Norway. Through researcher exchanges, capacity-building activities, scholarships and studentships, the team have forged new connections that are already leading to further collaborative research projects and opportunities.
Opening doors
“There are so many talented early career researchers within the countries where we work, with inherent knowledge and understanding of the environmental changes that we are trying to quantify through our research.” explains Professor Quincey. “For a long time, we have been working to bring students from different countries and cultures onto our campus so that we can learn from one another, and in doing so move the science forward together. By providing research experience opportunities to some of those potential applicants we hope to level the playing field a bit, and equip them with skills and knowledge that will open doors for further study or research positions at home and abroad.”
The project – called Building Resilience to South Asian Water Challenges Through Investment in Tomorrow’s Talent (BRAINSTORM) – has run an online symposium and organised workshops and research exchanges for Masters students and early career researchers across all the partners, with more still planned. The training covers the latest techniques in field data collection and remote sensing – including lower cost options that are more feasible for use where resources are limited. Workshops have also taken place in Afghanistan, run by researchers from Lausanne University who are Afghan nationals, to overcome security issues.
The project has been working with the newly created Cryosphere Society of Nepal (CSN) which brings together glaciologists from across the country, particularly early career researchers; the cryosphere is the collective term for the frozen part of the Earth. Through BRAINSTORM, CSN will shortly be running a workshop on the cryosphere for those who live and work in the mountain regions, such as trekking leaders and climbing guides.
The BRAINSTORM capacity building event showcased the physical modelling capability of colleagues at Kathmandu University. Credit: Sujan Pradhan
Knowledge exchange
For Tenzing Chogyal Sherpa, a cryosphere analyst from ICIMOD and a member of the BRAINSTORM project, this part of the work is close to home. His father was a trekking guide for many years and his grandfather is the last surviving member of the expedition which first reached the summit of Everest in 1953. Tenzing has followed in their footsteps, but rather than climbing mountains, he studies them.
Tenzing is both helping to organise workshops in Nepal and has himself benefitted from a research exchange to Leeds.
“Although I already have experience in glaciology, working with various analytical tools and techniques, my time at Leeds introduced me to cutting-edge technologies,” he says. “This kind of exposure is really important for South Asian scientists, like myself, as it helps us to stay relevant. As a rule, we don’t get enough opportunity and exposure to the latest research techniques and to other scientists working in the same field. My time at Leeds helped me gain technical skills and build my wider research network, both factors which can enable me to become more established as a scientific researcher.”
Monitoring and maintaining water quality is a global challenge, like here in the headwaters of the Dudh Koshi, Nepal. Credit: Mahesh Magar
The benefits and knowledge exchange works both ways, according to Ann Rowan, Associate Professor of Quaternary Geology and Palaeoclimate at the University of Bergen.
“Two early career researchers from Nepal have been working with me in Bergen for the last month. It’s been really interesting and useful to talk to them about their careers, the research they do, and how the educational system in Nepal differs from Europe as that will help us to better understand context when we’re assessing PhD or research applicants from that region,” she says.
Future research
Three projects have already benefitted from the connections made through BRAINSTORM. One is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and the other two by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) in the UK.
The first of these NERC awards, worth £840k, will see the international team heading to Everest in 2025.
That project builds on earlier research led by Professor Quincey, which discovered that, at around 5000m altitude, large sections deep within Khumbu Glacier were already close to melting point. As this ice has been formed on the higher slopes of Mount Everest, where average air temperatures are between minus 10 and minus 15 degrees, the increase in temperature over just 1500m drop in altitude was a complete surprise.
The scientists’ hypothesis is that as snow falls on the glacier and is melted by the sun, meltwater seeps into the ice and gradually refreezes. This freezing process then releases heat into the lower regions of the glacier, so that gradually the overall temperature of the glacier rises.
The new project will test this hypothesis, by installing temperature sensors into the ice at much higher altitude, to see how the thermal conditions compare to those measured lower down on the glacier. Understanding the processes at such high altitude is critical, not only to determine how fast the glaciers might be lost as the climate warms, but also for communities further down the valleys who rely on glacial melt for their water needs.
The meltwater that originates from glaciers like Khumbu Glacier ultimately support the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across South Asia. Credit: Duncan Quincey
The meltwater that originates from glaciers like Khumbu Glacier ultimately support the lives and livelihoods of millions of people across South Asia
The University’s ISF funding helped to secure the NERC award, as although ICIMOD could not be named as a project partner on the grant, being able to showcase an active collaboration with the organisation strengthened the bid significantly, by providing evidence of an established route for the findings of the research to be fed into policy in the region.
The second £1million NERC-funded project will be led by Professor of Aquatic Science at the University of Leeds, Lee Brown, with Professor Quincey as a co-investigator. Drawing on the partnerships built through the BRAINSTORM project, including with Kathmandu and Tribhuvan universities, the team will be looking at how the shrinking Himalayan glaciers are affecting biodiversity within the river systems of the high mountains, and the potential impact on water quality for the communities that rely on them.
For Dr Rowan, the BRAINSTORM project helped to improve her research network within Norway as well as the Himalayan region. Much of the hydropower infrastructure in the Himalaya is Norwegian-designed and ICIMOD already had strong links with the Norwegian hydropower industry. Dr Rowan is now working with ICIMOD, the University of Leeds and the University of Lausanne on a grant proposal to the Norwegian Research Council to look at the impacts of glacial melting on the future of hydropower, in light of their findings on Khumbu Glacier.