Mountain glaciers, as a special and major component of the global ecosystem, are important for maintaining regional ecological stability and regulating stream runoff water supply. The functions of glacial ecology and socio-economic services are more than these, and glaciers have a complete and relatively independent service function system as other ecological systems do. For example, mountain glaciers have significant influence on the global climate and the regional meteorological parameters such as temperature, precipitation, and humidity. Furthermore, as a special underlying surface, larger reflectivity of glaciers might be inhibited on global warming to a certain degree (
Li et al., 2003). At the same time, glaciers provide an ideal environment for periglacial plants and microorganisms, due to the unique environmental features such as low temperature and oligotrophy (
Zhang et al., 2014). In addition, the glacier melting/accumulation process is involved in atmospheric exchange, and the leakages of methane was predicted to have a significant impact on the global climate as the glaciers recede and permafrost melts (
Li et al., 2014). In fact, glaciers have played a role in “sealing” greenhouse gases. The physical and chemical processes of Atmospheric-Firn-Glacier ice evolution have sealed pollutants from human and natural emissions. Therefore, glaciers, as “condensers”, are the important natural archives to study the history of pollution. Alpine glaciers have accumulated high concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (
Li et al., 2010), which confirm that glaciers have the function of purifying the global environment. In recent years, the service functions and value assessment of various types of ecosystem, such as grassland, forest and wetland, have been studied by many scholars in a more systematic research, which has gained plentiful and substantial achievements (
Song, 2016, Staviet al., 2016). On the contrary, the ecological and socio-economic service function of glacier resources is not well-recognized by the public and has not been given enough attention (
Xiao et al., 2016). The functions of the water resources provision and climate regulation of the glaciers in the Manas River Basin were described quantitatively, and the value of the hydrological adjustment functions was estimated by alternative engineering methods (
Zhang et al., 2009). Part of the service value provided by glaciers in the study area was evaluated, and according to ecosystem services value units area of Chinese terrestrial ecosystem, the value of glaciers ecological service was estimated (
Wang et al., 2004;
Mansur et al., 2016). The equivalent factor of services value such as raw material supply, soil conservation and nutrient circulation, and biodiversity maintenance of the glaciers is mainly determined by expert experience, which results in the obvious limitations in the objective and quantitative analysis of the glaciers dynamic service value (
Xieet al., 2015). The unique natural characteristics and change process of glaciers determined by the service functions are obviously different from other ecosystems. The modeled and estimated value of the glacier ecosystem service can improve the understanding of the impact of glaciers on human welfare and maintenance of the ecological environment and will promote the research on regional ecosystems and even global ecosystem services.