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A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 26 sepTember 2019
Hardy scientists trek to Venezuela’s last glacier amid chaos

By CHRISTINA LARSON and lines of climate change.
FEDERICA NARANCIO Glaciers in the tropical An-
Associated Press des have been retreating
MERIDA, Venezuela (AP) faster than most other gla-
— Blackouts shut off the re- ciers since scientists began
frigerators where the scien- keeping detailed records in
tists keep their lab samples. the 1970s, because tropical
Gas shortages mean they latitudes get more direct
sometimes have to work sunlight and radiation.
from home. When a glacier melts away,
They even reuse sheets of at first only bedrock is left
paper to record field data behind — sometimes rough
because fresh supplies are gravel and sometimes
so scarce. smooth rock, worn down
As their country falls apart, by centuries or millenniums
a hardy team of scientists in of grinding ice.
Venezuela is determined to But within a few years or
transcend the political and decades, bacteria and li-
economic turmoil to record chen began to colonize
what happens as the coun- the area.
try’s last glacier vanishes. As they decompose the
Temperatures are warming minerals of the rock and
faster at the Earth’s higher their bodies then decay
elevations than in lowlands, In this Feb. 19, 2019 photo, scientists hike during a mission to study how temperatures and plant into organic matter, the first
and scientists predict that life are changing in the Andean ecosystem known as the paramos _ a mist-covered mountain hints of soil begin to form.
the glacier — an ice sheet grassland that lies between the top of the treeline and the bottom of the Humboldt glacier, in And soil is the basis of a
in the Andes Mountains — Merida, Venezuela. new ecosystem, providing
could be gone within two Associated Press a structure to retain water
decades. are in the Andes. at times donning helmets 50 years ago, in 1969, and and for plant roots to grow.
“If we left and came back There’s still a little bit on and holding tight to ropes the scientists there see “The formation of soil is
in 20 years, we would have Mount Kilimanjaro,” says to maneuver up steep themselves as custodians the difference between
missed it,” says Luis Daniel Robert Hofstede, a tropical boulders. Some of the sci- of long-term data monitor- an ecosystem being able
Llambí, a mountain ecolo- ecologist in Ecuador who entists had waterproofed ing how temperatures and to form quickly and be-
gist at the University of the advises international agen- their worn-out old boots us- plant life are changing in ing stalled for hundreds of
Andes in Mérida. cies such as the World Bank ing melted candle wax. the region, including in the years,” Llambí says.
Scientists say Venezuela will and United Nations. Mountain fieldwork always Andean ecosystem known On the rocks left behind
be the first country in South Monitoring Venezuela’s is physically grueling, but as the paramos — a mist- when the glacier retreats,
America to lose all its gla- Humboldt glacier depends the deepening crisis in covered mountain grass- the scientists think that a
ciers. on continuous visits, Llambí Venezuela since the death land that lies between the new ecosystem resembling
Throughout history, glaciers notes. of former president Hugo top of the tree line and the the paramos may eventu-
have waxed and waned And even in the best of cir- Chavez in 2013 has trans- bottom of the glacier. ally begin to develop.
numerous times. cumstances, it’s no easy formed even simple tasks While most tundras have But there are many ques-
But the rapid pace of gla- trek from the small moun- into immense hurdles. sparse vegetation, the tions still to answer: Will it
cial retreat over the past tain town of Mérida to the “Things that you normally paramos is famous for strik- take decades to form new
century and a half, accel- ice sheet perched within take for granted for re- ing plants called frailejones soil? Can plant and animal
erated by human activities Venezuela’s Sierra Nevada search — internet, gas, that can be taller than hu- species that thrive at lower
and the burning of fossil fu- National Park at nearly electricity — all become mans and resemble a cross elevations also survive fur-
els, creates a new urgency 16,500 feet (5,000 meters) scarce and unpredict- between a cactus and a ther upslope?
— and opportunity — for above sea level. able,” Llambí says. palm tree. Will they be able to adapt
scientists to understand When Llambí and three Perhaps the hardest toll These mountain grasslands to continually changing
how freshly exposed rock other scientists made the has been watching many also store and release wa- temperatures?
forms new soil and eventu- journey this spring to scout of their colleagues and ter that sustains the cit- Venezuela has the world’s
ally new ecosystems. out mountain terrain for a students leave, joining the ies and croplands further largest known oil reserves,
While most of the planet’s new research project, they more than 4 million people downslope. but an economy hitched
ice is stored in the polar first rode a cable car, then who have fled Venezuela’s It’s hard to overstate the for decades to global oil
regions, there are also gla- walked a full day to the political upheaval in recent importance of the Andean demand has proven unsta-
ciers in some mountainous base camp, pitching their years. glaciers in maintaining re- ble. Llambí believes he has
regions of the tropics — pri- tents in drizzling rain. “Every week, someone asks gional water cycles. a special obligation to help
marily in South America. Each day, they then had to me why I haven’t left,” says “More than 50 million peo- inform the public of the im-
“Practically all of the high- climb an additional three Alejandra Melfo, a team ple in South America rely pacts of climate change in
mountain tropical glaciers hours to reach the glacier, member who is a physicist on water provision from a country where the boom-
at the University of the An- the Andes,” says Francisco and-bust cycle of fossil fuel
des. Cuesta, a tropical ecolo- exploration has shaped
Not now, she tells anyone gist at the University of the nearly everyone’s life.
who asks. Americas in Quito, Ecua- “Our university is in Mérida,
“Climate change is real dor, who marvels at the which has long been called
and has to be document- dogged work the team is ‘the city of eternal snow,’”
ed,” she says. “We have to doing under such punishing he reflects.
be there.” conditions. “We are discovering that
The Institute of Environ- “To me, it’s incredible that ‘eternity’ is not forever, and
mental and Ecological Sci- they are still doing research that’s what we have to get
ences at the University of there,” Cuesta says. used to in a world with cli-
the Andes was founded The region is one of the front mate change.”q