The rate at which glaciers erode landscapes is an important but poorly constrained relationship?

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Relationship between what and what? Between glacier speed and erosion rate?
It is obvious so if one read the news title "The impact of glacier speed on erosion rates". But it is ambiguous if one read the article title "The glacial way of wearing away" and its summary.
What do you think?

(Besides, what does "poorly constrained" mean there? Poorly understood?

Context:

The impact of glacier speed on erosion rates

Fast glaciers are more effective landscape gougers than their slow-moving counterparts

More:

http://www.sciencemag.org/

The glacial way of wearing away

The rate at which glaciers erode landscapes is an important but poorly constrained relationship. Herman et al. tackle this issue by considering the Franz Josef alpine glacier in New Zealand. The amount of sediment piling up at the edge of the glacier provided erosion rates, whereas remote sensing allowed for simultaneous tracking of glacial motion. The result was a nonlinear relationship, suggesting that fast glaciers are much more effective at gouging landscapes. This could explain the paradox of why long-term erosion rates are so much lower in polar regions with more permanent glaciers.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/350/6257/193.abstract

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@oristarA,

Well, "constrain" implies limitation or restriction. Whereas the abstract refers to a non linear relationship, one in which all factors may not yet have been identified. So, your suggestion of "understood" seems a more appropriate descriptive term than "constrained". "Incompletely researched" or "poorly researched" might work as well, I think.

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@neologist,

neologist wrote:

Well, "constrain" implies limitation or restriction. Whereas the abstract refers to a non linear relationship, one in which all factors may not yet have been identified. So, your suggestion of "understood" seems a more appropriate descriptive term than "constrained". "Incompletely researched" or "poorly researched" might work as well, I think.

Cool. Thanks.
Does "relationship" refer to "the relationship between glacier speed and erosion rate" in the article?

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@oristarA,

oristarA wrote:

Does "relationship" refer to "the relationship between glacier speed and erosion rate" in the article?

Those are the noted measurable quantities. So, yes.

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@oristarA,

The abstract makes sense. I think there is a problem stemming from the translation from French to English in the editor's summary.

It's probably better to work from the abstract - or the full article - rather than someone else's translated summary.

Is there someone available who can translate the French directly?

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The rate at which glaciers erode landscapes is an important but poorly constrained relationship?

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