Preface

Glaciers have always played an important role in human history and have been perceived, in ancient times, like monstrous entities of the mountains and are now carefully observed as climate change sentinels. Glaciers influence natural and anthropic systems, e.g., by provid‐ ing water, influencing local weather, and hosting communities on their body and their sur‐ roundings, too. The current climate change scenario is heavily affecting glacier dynamics. Glacier melt rate is rapidly increasing, and without an adequate amount of snowfall, its mass balance is continuously negative. This issue deserves accurate and in-depth studies in order to adequately monitor glacier state and try to mitigate its impact. This circumstance in fact endangers the water supply, thus influencing human settlements, but also creates new environments allowing the colonization by pioneer communities, i.e., primary succession and the formation of new landscapes.

This book is subdivided into two main sections in order to deal with the two topics of worldwide research on glaciers and ecology in glacial environments. In the first one "Gla‐ ciers in the World," several reviews and studies are collected. It is an overview of glaciers, their state, and research carried out in different continents and contexts. Chapter 1 concen‐ trates on Svalbard archipelago and deals with cryospheric metrics and analytical chemistry in the environmental monitoring. Chapter 2 focuses on glacier changes in the arid environ‐ ment of central Asia by applying statistical modeling. The Amazon watershed is analyzed in Chapter 3. It copes with several aspects of this peculiar sector of the cryosphere, i.e., tropical glaciers. At last, Chapter 4 explores the barely known topic of glaciers in Balkan Peninsula with an overview of different mountain ranges and their glacial bodies.

The second section "Glacial Ecosystems" focuses, on the other hand, on glacier environ‐ ments and ecological researches. Chapter 5 describes glaciers as unique biomes dominated by microbial communities and deals with their role, during glacial retreat, in soil formation and plant settlements. The study of vegetation dynamics, by permanent plots and chronose‐ quences, is addressed in Chapter 6. Chapter 7, finally, deals with 200 years of arthropod suc‐ cession in a glacier foreland.

I would like to thank all the contributors of this book including the authors of the accepted chapters. My special thanks go to the Publishing Process Manager, Ms. Martina Usljebrka, and the staff of InTech publishing for their kind support. I also thank my colleague, Ms. Martina Cignetti, for providing helpful comments while reviewing this preface.

> **Danilo Godone, PhD National Research Council,** Research Institute for Hydrogeological Prevention and Protection, Geohazard Monitoring Group, Torino, Italy

**Section 1**
