scholarly journals Modelling Glacier Evolution in Bhutanese Himalaya during the Little Ice Age

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Weilin Yang ◽  
Yingkui Li ◽  
Gengnian Liu ◽  
Wenchao Chu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Summer Temperature ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Glacier Length ◽  
Length Changes ◽  
Simulation Results ◽  
Past Climate Change ◽  
Glacial Landforms

Abstract. Mountain glaciers provide us a window into past climate change and landscape evolution, but the pattern of glacier evolution at centennial or suborbital timescale remains elusive, especially in monsoonal Himalayas. We simulated the glacier evolution in Bhutanese Himalaya, a typical monsoon influenced region, during the Little Ice Age (LIA), using the Open Global Glacier Model and six paleo-climate datasets. Compared with the mapped glacial landforms, the model can well capture the glacier length changes, especially for the experiment driving by the GISS climate dataset, but overestimates the changes in glacier area. Simulation results reveal four glacial substages at 1270s–1400s, 1470s–1520s, 1700s–1710s, and 1820s–1900s in the study area. From further analysis, a negative correlation between the number of the substages and glacier length was found, which suggests that the number and occurrence of glacial substages are regulated by the heterogeneous responses of glaciers to climate change. In addition, the changes in summer temperature dominated the glacier evolution in this region during the LIA.

scholarly journals Application of inventory data for estimating characteristics of and regional climate-change effects on mountain glaciers: a pilot study with the European Alps

1995 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 206-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilfried Haeberli ◽  
Martin Hoelzle
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Mass Balance ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Inventory Data ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Length Changes

A parameterization scheme using simple algorithms for unmeasured glaciers is being applied to glacier inventory data to estimate the basic glaciological characteristics of the inventoried ice bodies and simulate potential climate-change effects on mountain glaciers. For past and potential climate scenarios, glacier changes for assumed mass-balance changes are calculated as step functions between steady-state conditions for time intervals that approximately correspond to the characteristic dynamic response time (a few decades) of the glaciers. In order to test the procedure, a pilot study was carried out in the European Alps where detailed glacier inventories had been compiled around the mid-1970s. Total glacier volume in the Alps is estimated at about 130 km3 for the mid-1970s; strongly negative mass balances are likely to have caused a loss of about 10–20% of this total volume during the decade 1980–90. Backward calculation of glacier-length changes using a mean annual mass balance of 0.25m w.e.a−1 since the end of the “Little Ice Age” around 1850 AD gives considerable scatter but satisfactory overall results as compared with long-term observations. The total loss of Alpine surface ice mass since 1850 can be estimated at about half the original value. An acceleration of this development, with annual mass losses of around 1 m a−1 or more as anticipated from IPCC scenario A for the coming century, could eliminate major parts of the presently existing Alpine ice volume within decades.

scholarly journals Application of inventory data for estimating characteristics of and regional climate-change effects on mountain glaciers: a pilot study with the European Alps

1995 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
pp. 206-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilfried Haeberli ◽  
Martin Hoelzle
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Pilot Study ◽  
Mass Balance ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
European Alps ◽  
Inventory Data ◽  
Mountain Glaciers ◽  
Climate Change Effects ◽  
Length Changes

A parameterization scheme using simple algorithms for unmeasured glaciers is being applied to glacier inventory data to estimate the basic glaciological characteristics of the inventoried ice bodies and simulate potential climate-change effects on mountain glaciers. For past and potential climate scenarios, glacier changes for assumed mass-balance changes are calculated as step functions between steady-state conditions for time intervals that approximately correspond to the characteristic dynamic response time (a few decades) of the glaciers. In order to test the procedure, a pilot study was carried out in the European Alps where detailed glacier inventories had been compiled around the mid-1970s. Total glacier volume in the Alps is estimated at about 130 km3 for the mid-1970s; strongly negative mass balances are likely to have caused a loss of about 10–20% of this total volume during the decade 1980–90. Backward calculation of glacier-length changes using a mean annual mass balance of 0.25m w.e.a−1 since the end of the “Little Ice Age” around 1850 AD gives considerable scatter but satisfactory overall results as compared with long-term observations. The total loss of Alpine surface ice mass since 1850 can be estimated at about half the original value. An acceleration of this development, with annual mass losses of around 1 m a−1 or more as anticipated from IPCC scenario A for the coming century, could eliminate major parts of the presently existing Alpine ice volume within decades.

Climate-induced treeline mortality during the termination of the Little Ice Age in the Greater Yellowstone Ecoregion, USA

The Holocene ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 095968362110116
Author(s):  
Maegen L Rochner ◽  
Karen J Heeter ◽  
Grant L Harley ◽  
Matthew F Bekker ◽  
Sally P Horn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Tree Ring ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Climate Changes ◽  
Frost Damage ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Variability ◽  
Whitebark Pine ◽  
Engelmann Spruce ◽  
Greater Yellowstone

Paleoclimate reconstructions for the western US show spatial variability in the timing, duration, and magnitude of climate changes within the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA, ca. 900–1350 CE) and Little Ice Age (LIA, ca. 1350–1850 CE), indicating that additional data are needed to more completely characterize late-Holocene climate change in the region. Here, we use dendrochronology to investigate how climate changes during the MCA and LIA affected a treeline, whitebark pine ( Pinus albicaulis Engelm.) ecosystem in the Greater Yellowstone Ecoregion (GYE). We present two new millennial-length tree-ring chronologies and multiple lines of tree-ring evidence from living and remnant whitebark pine and Engelmann spruce ( Picea engelmannii Parry ex. Engelm.) trees, including patterns of establishment and mortality; changes in tree growth; frost rings; and blue-intensity-based, reconstructed summer temperatures, to highlight the terminus of the LIA as one of the coldest periods of the last millennium for the GYE. Patterns of tree establishment and mortality indicate conditions favorable to recruitment during the latter half of the MCA and climate-induced mortality of trees during the middle-to-late LIA. These patterns correspond with decreased growth, frost damage, and reconstructed cooler temperature anomalies for the 1800–1850 CE period. Results provide important insight into how past climate change affected important GYE ecosystems and highlight the value of using multiple lines of proxy evidence, along with climate reconstructions of high spatial resolution, to better describe spatial and temporal variability in MCA and LIA climate and the ecological influence of climate change.

scholarly journals Eolian Response to Little Ice Age Climate Change, Tana Dunes, Chugach Mountains, Alaska, U.S.A.

2003 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory C. Wiles ◽  
Ryan P. McAllister ◽  
Nicole K. Davi ◽  
Gordon C. Jacoby
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age

Climate change during the Little Ice Age from the Lake Hamana sediment record

2019 ◽  
Vol 223 ◽  
pp. 39-49 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ara Cho ◽  
Kaoru Kashima ◽  
Koji Seto ◽  
Kazuyoshi Yamada ◽  
Takumi Sato ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Sediment Record ◽  
Lake Hamana

scholarly journals Relation between recent glacier variations and climate in the Tien Shan mountains, central Asia

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liu Chaohai ◽  
Han Tianding
Keyword(s):  
Mass Balance ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
General Trend ◽  
Summer Temperature ◽  
Tien Shan ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Climatic Fluctuations ◽  
Tien Shan Mountains

Since the Little Ice Age, most glaciers in the Tien Shan mountains have been retreating. Owing to an increase in precipitation in most parts of the mountains during the late 1950s to early 1970s, the percentage of receding glaciers and the speed of retreat have tended to decrease in the 1970s. However, the general trend of continuous glacier retreat remains unchanged, in part because the summer air temperature shows no tendency to decrease.In the Tien Shan mountains, as the degree of climatic continentality increases the mass balance becomes more dependent on summer temperature, and accumulation and ablation tend to be lower. Therefore, the responses of glaciers to climatic fluctuations in more continental areas are not synchronous with those in less continental areas, and the amplitude of the glacier variations becomes smaller.

scholarly journals Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age

The Holocene ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 1643-1648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter N Peregrine
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Little Ice Age ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Social Disruption ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
Vulnerability To Climate Change ◽  
The Relationship

The Late Antique Little Ice Age, spanning the period from 536 CE to roughly 560 CE, saw temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere drop by a degree C in less than a decade. This rapid cooling is thought to have caused widespread famine, epidemic disease, and social disruption. The relationship between cooling and social disruption is examined here using a set of high-resolution climate and historical data. A significant link between cooling and social disruption is demonstrated, but it is also demonstrated that the link is highly variable, with some societies experiencing dramatic cooling changing very little, and others experiencing only slight cooling changing dramatically. This points to variation in vulnerability, and serves to establish the Late Antique Little Ice Age as a context within which naturalistic quasi-experiments on vulnerability to climate change might be conducted.

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