Feeding the ocean? A workshop on glacial flour

The very fine particles, or “flour” formed as glaciers flow over and crush underlying rocks are highly reactive and can release elements and compounds into the environment. Glacial flour is an important source of critical nutrients for coastal marine environments and has attracted substantial interest as a fertiliser for crops, but also has the potential to harbour toxic metals. With the growing interest in the use of glacial flour as a resource, and in the face of a changing climate, we need a better understanding of how glaciers impact carbon and nutrient cycling, and ecosystems.

Different research groups are working on disentangling how different elements are released as glacial flour flows downstream and how these different elements interact with each other. Professor Kate Hendry (British Antarctic Survey, Polar Oceans Team), together with partners at the Universities of Tromsø (Norway) and Aarhus (Denmark), held a workshop at BAS in March, with the aim of bringing researchers and stakeholders from the UK, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland and the US, for knowledge exchange and networking. The team put their heads together and have produced a horizon scan of the key gaps in our understanding of how glacial flour feeds biology in marine and terrestrial systems, which is now publicly available here:

Hendry, K., Wadham, J., & Gill Olivas, B. (2026). Glacial Flour as a Source of Nutrients: A horizon scan of key themes and opportunities. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19818427

The workshop was funded by the United Kingdom’s Government “Supporting Impactful UK Arctic Science Engagement Scheme 2025-2026”, administered through the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Arctic Office.