Mountain glaciers under a changing climate

Ice Cores , High - Mountain Glaciers , and Climate

The near-global retreat of high-mountain glaciers and the shrinkage of ice fields and ice caps and retreat of their associated outlet glaciers are perhaps the most visible evidence for 20th-century climate change and the recent increase in the globally averaged near-surface temperatures of the Earth’s surface. The loss of high-mountain glaciers—including ice fields, ice caps, and other glaciers...

Mapping Conservation Strategies under a Changing Climate

Reconstructing Climate from Glaciers

Glaciers offer the potential to reconstruct past climate over timescales from decades to millennia. They are found on nearly every continent, and at the Last Glacial Maximum, glaciers were larger in all regions on Earth. The physics of glacier-climate interaction are relatively well understood, and glacier models can be used to reconstruct past climate from geological evidence of past glacier e...

Changing climate and endangered high mountain ecosystems in Colombia.

High mountain ecosystems are among the most sensitive environments to changes in climatic conditions occurring on global, regional and local scales. The article describes the changing conditions observed over recent years in the high mountain basin of the Claro River, on the west flank of the Colombian Andean Central mountain range. Local ground truth data gathered at 4150 m, regional data avai...

Integrated monitoring of mountain glaciers as key indicators of global climate change: the European Alps

The internationally recommended multi-level strategy for monitoring mountain glaciers is illustrated using the example of the European Alps, where especially dense information has been available through historical times. This strategy combines in situ measurements (mass balance, length change) with remote sensing (inventories) and numerical modelling. It helps to bridge the gap between detailed...