Glaciers and glaciation changes in the Hohe Tauern National Park (Austria): From early research initiatives to glacier preservation

The Hohe Tauern National Park (HTNP) is Austria’s largest (1,856 km²) and oldest (1981) national park with some of the highest peaks in the Eastern Alps. Some 19% of the present national park was covered by glaciers during the Little Ice Age maximum circa ad 1850. One third of this area is still covered by glaciers. This paper presents a short overview of the long glaciological research tradition and the monitoring activities on glaciers starting in 1879 and presents selected results from the HTNP. In addition, the importance of glaciers for the HTNP is discussed with special emphasis on educational trails. Some considerations on aspects of glacier protection conclude the article.