Bed topography is a critical parameter for determining the modern-day and future dynamics of ice sheets and their outlet glaciers. This is because the topography controls the state of stress for glaciers. At glacier termini, topography can influence the timing of terminus retreat by controlling access to warm ocean waters and/or by influencing the ability of a glacier terminus to retreat over bed bumps (moraines). Inland from the terminus, the topography can also influence where glacier retreat and thinning can stabilize. In part, this is because of knickpoints in bed topography created through glacial erosion that may influence the extent to which thinning can diffuse inland for an individual glacier and thus, the timing and magnitude of long-term mass loss. Here we provide a review of the current literature on these topics. While much of the reviewed literature assumes that topography is stable on relevant timescales to humans, new research suggests that topography may change much faster than previously thought and this further complicates our ability to project future outlet glacier change.

河床地形是确定冰盖及其出口冰川现代和未来动态的关键参数。这是因为地形控制着冰川的应力状态。在冰川终点，地形可以通过控制进入温暖海水的通道和/或影响冰川终点在河床隆起物（冰碛）上退缩的能力来影响终点退缩的时间。从终点站到内陆，地形也会影响冰川退缩和变薄稳定的位置。在某种程度上，这是因为冰川侵蚀造成的河床地形的拐点可能会影响单个冰川变薄向内陆扩散的程度，从而影响长期质量损失的时间和程度。在这里，我们回顾了有关这些主题的当前文献。虽然许多文献综述都假设地形在与人类相关的时间尺度上是稳定的，但新的研究表明，地形的变化可能比以前想象的要快得多，这进一步使我们预测未来出口冰川变化的能力变得更加复杂。