Glacier Buffer

DISCLAIMER — Real Science, No Framework Bridge

Why no UTAC/CREP/AFET bridge: not only because the cited literature already provides the necessary quantitative structure -- a deliberate choice. This project's highly speculative AFET/UTAC experiments must never stand in the way of climate/ecology topics being accessible and usable to people who don't work inside that construct and aren't looking for renormalization groups. Real, checkable science, without the burden of an unproven framework. See PACKAGE_REGISTRY.md's "Why no UTAC/CREP/AFET bridge in the climate/ecology series" (2026-08-31) in the GenesisAeon workspace root for the full canonical note.

Status: Real, verified science + NO UTAC/CREP/AFET bridge

What this is

• Peak water (Huss & Hock 2018, Nature Climate Change): a real,
• quantitatively modeled phenomenon in glacier hydrology. As glaciers
• lose mass, basin-scale glacier runoff first rises, then reaches a
• maximum, then declines. The decline phase is what removes the
• hydrological buffer that dampened summer/drought low-water periods —
• exactly the mechanism described in the GenesisAeon-Diskurs dialogue
• this package is built from.
• A real, quantified downstream ecological response (Cauvy-Fraunie
• et al. 2016, Nature Communications): an experimental 31% flow
• reduction produced a 6.5x (±1.8) increase in benthic fauna density
• within two weeks, and a 33-site field survey found an abrupt shift in
• algal/herbivore biomass below 11% catchment glacier cover. Recovery to
• pre-perturbation community composition took 14–16 months.
• A real synthesis review (Milner et al. 2017, PNAS) of how
• glacier shrinkage propagates into downstream hydrology, sediment
• transport, biogeochemistry and biota.
• **A

…

glacier-buffer-utac

GenesisAeon Package 99 — real glacial hydrological buffer ("peak water") and downstream buffer-loss cascade science. Deliberately has no UTAC/CREP/AFET bridge — see DISCLAIMER.md.

For a plain-language explanation of the same topic (German, no jargon, written for general audiences), see WHITEPAPER.md.

What's real here

• Huss & Hock (2018, Nature Climate Change): "peak water" — glacier
• runoff rises, peaks, then declines as ice mass shrinks; the decline
• removes a real hydrological buffer against summer/drought low water.
• Cauvy-Fraunie et al. (2016, Nature Communications): experimental
• 31% flow reduction → 6.5x (±1.8) benthic fauna density increase within
• 2 weeks; 14–16 months to recover; an 11% glacier-cover threshold for
• abrupt algal/herbivore biomass shifts (33-site field survey).
• Milner et al. (2017, PNAS): synthesis review of glacier shrinkage
• propagating into downstream hydrology, sediment and biogeochemistry.
• Dunkle et al. (2025, Ecology): loss of meltwater desynchronizes
• previously asynchronous glacier-/snow-/rain-fed stream resource
• dynamics.
• Xuan et al. (2026, Earth's Future): wetland glacier-meltwater
• dependence is spatially heterogeneous — strong near the glacier
• margin, fading with distance.
• The full glacier → wetland → vegetation → fauna cascade is honestly
• represented as a literature-supported hypothesis network, not a
• single measured causal chain — see DISCLAIMER.md.

Quickstart

bash pip install glacier-buffer-utac

```python from glacier_buffer_utac import ( ALL_CASCADE_STAGES, is_below_glacier_cover_threshold, buffer_sensitivity_multiplier, recovery_time_months_range, )

for stage in ALL_CASCADE_STAGES: print(stage.name, "--", stage.mechanism)

print(is_below_glacier_cover_threshold(8.0)) # True print(buffer_sensitivity_multiplier(0.3)) # 3.33... -- more sensitive as ice shrinks print(recovery_time_months_range()) # (14, 16) ```

Development

bash pip install -e ".[dev]" pre-commit install ruff check src tests mypy src pytest

Citation

See CITATION.cff and .zenodo.json.