Geodiversity of proglacial areas and implications for geosystem services: A review

Proglacial areas represent the counterpart of glacial retreat, where a new environmental equilibrium will be reached. During this long and complex stage, which represents the response to ongoing climate change, several abiotic and biotic processes occur in these freshly exposed fragile environments. Proglacial areas, considered as open-air laboratories, have been attracting the attention of scientists in the last decades, and the diversity of their features allows us to classify them based on different aspects of geodiversity (i.e., bedrock diversity, geomorphodiversity, hydrogeodiversity, pedodiversity). In this paper, we review the diversity of features of proglacial areas using several examples mainly from the European Alps. The geosystem services (i.e., regulating, supporting, provisioning and cultural) provided by these areas to society are also discussed, revealing the value of these regions as part of geoheritage. As these fragile and vulnerable areas are highly relevant to society, it is important to monitor them, and to set up adequate management strategies, including geoconservation, but also sustainable promotion.