The photo above shows researchers tracking high-elevation snowfall at the National Science Foundation's Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research site in Colorado.

Research from a team of scientists at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU-Boulder) suggest that an ongoing ice loss in the Rocky Mountains is shrinking glaciers and other icy terrain, an occurrence that could spell trouble for future water supplies.

The research areaincludesthousands of alpine tundra, subalpine forest, talus slopes, glacial lakes and wetlands, according to a news release from CU-Bolder. The decline is especially apparent on the Arikaree Glacier, the only one on Niwot Ridge, which has been dissipating by about 1 meter per year over the last 15 years.

“Things don’t look good up there,” said CU-Boulder hydrologist Mark Williams, lead author of the study. “While there was no significant change in the volume of the Arikaree Glacier from 1955 to 2000, severe drought years in Colorado in 2000 to 2002 caused it to thin considerably. Even after heavy snow years in 2011 and again in 2014, we believe the glacier is on course to disappear in about 20 years given the current climate trend.”

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According to Williams, severe drought and high temperatures in the early 2000s led to a rapid loss of ice from the Arikaree Glacier and the permafrost under the alpine tundra, reports the Associated Press. Additionally, the melting permafrost is shown by an increase of water flowing out of the mountains in late summer and autumn over the past 20 years.

, researchers told the Denver Post.

"What ice provides is insurance so that, when we have bad years, we can get more contribution from glaciers and permafrost," Williams said.

Water may be flowing for now, but the reserves needed to endure periods of drought will be gone, he said.

Though the area being studied by the team accounts for some of Boulder’s drinking water, Public Works Department water resources manager Joe Taddeucci told the AP there’s no immediate need to worry.

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“I would not say it’s cause for alarm, but climate change and climate change scenarios in general is something that we’re very closely paying attention to,” Taddeucci said.

The team used several techniques to measure Niwot Ridge’s surface and subsurface ice, including ground-penetrating radars to measure the thickness of ice and snow, resistivity to measure how electric signals are conducted through ice, and seismometers to measure signals bounced through the subsurface ice, CU-Boulder’s News Center reports.

The University of Colorado has two research stations near the Arikaree Glacier on Niwot Ridge, one at 10,025 feet above sea level and the other at 12,300 feet above sea level. It has been gathering data in the area since the 1940s.

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