Abstract
This paper examines the potential of the stable isotopic ratios, 18O/16O (δ18Oice) and 2H/1H (δDice), preserved in mid to low latitude glaciers as a tool for paleoclimate reconstruction. Ice cores are particularly valuable as they contain additional data, such as dust concentrations, aerosol chemistry, and accumulation rates, that can be combined with the isotopic information to assist with inferences about the regional climate conditions prevailing at the time of deposition. We use a collection of multi-proxy ice core histories to explore the δ18O-climate relationship over the last 25,000 years that includes both Late Glacial Stage (LGS) and Holocene climate conditions. These results suggest that on centennial to millennial time scales atmospheric temperature is the principal control on the δ18Oice of the snowfall that sustains these high mountain ice fields.
Decadally averaged δ18Oice records from three Andean and three Tibetan ice cores are composited to produce a low latitude δ18Oice history for the last millennium. Comparison of this ice core composite with the Northern Hemisphere proxy record (1000–2000 A.D.) reconstructed by Mann et al. (1999) and measured temperatures (1856–2000) reported by Jones et al. (1999) suggests the ice cores have captured the decadal scale variability in the global temperature trends. These ice cores show a 20th century isotopic enrichment that suggests a large scale warming is underway at low latitudes. The rate of this isotopically inferred warming is amplified at higher elevations over the Tibetan Plateau while amplification in the Andes is latitude dependent with enrichment (warming) increasing equatorward. In concert with this apparent warming, in situ observations reveal that tropical glaciers are currently disappearing. A brief overview of the loss of these tropical data archives over the last 30 years is presented along with evaluation of recent changes in mean δ18Oice composition. The isotopic composition of precipitation should be viewed not only as a powerful proxy indicator of climate change, but also as an additional parameter to aid our understanding of the linkages between changes in the hydrologic cycle and global climate.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Baker, P. A., Rigsby, C. A., Seltzer, G. O., Fritz, S. C., Lowenstein, T. K., Bacher, N. P., and Veliz, C.: 2001, ‘Tropical Climate Changes at Millennial and Orbital Timescales on the Bolivian Altiplano’, Nature 409, 698–701.
Beck, J. W., Récy, J., Taylor, F., Edwards, R. L., Cabioch, G.: 1997, ‘Abrupt Changes in Early Holocene Tropical Sea Surface Temperature Derived from Coral Records’, Nature 385, 705–707.
Bradley, R. S.: 2000, ‘Past Global Changes and their Significance for the Future’, Quat. Sci. Rev. 19, 391–402.
Brecher, H. and Thompson, L. G.: 1993, ‘Measurement of the Retreat of Qori Kalis in the Tropical Andes of Peru by Terrestrial Photogrammetry’, Photogrammetric Engineer. Remote Sens. 59, 1017–1022.
Broecker, W. S.: 1995, ‘Cooling the Tropics’, Nature 376, 212–213.
Broecker, W. S. and Denton, G. H.: 1990, ‘Implications of Global Snowline Lowering During Glacial Time to Glacial Theory’, Quat. Sci. Rev. 9, 305–341.
Colinvaux, P. A., DeOliveira, P. E., Moreno, J. E., Miller, M. C., and Bush, M. B.: 1996, ‘A Long Pollen Record from Lowland Amozonia Forest and Cooling in Glacial Times’, Science 274, 85–88.
Dansgaard, W. S.: 1964, ‘Stable Isotopes in Precipitation’, Tellus 16, 436–468.
Dansgaard W. and Oeschger, H.: 1989, ‘Past Environmental Long-Term Records from the Arctic’, in Oeschger, H. and Langway, J. J. Jr. (eds.), The Environmental Record in Glaciers and Ice Sheets, Wiley, Chichester, pp. 287–318.
Grootes, P. M., Stuiver, M., Thompson, L. G., and Mosley-Thompson, E.: 1989, ‘Oxygen Isotope Changes in Tropical Ice, Quelccaya, Peru’, J. Geophys. Res. 94, 1187–1194.
Grootes, P. M., Stuiver, M., White, J. W. C., Johnsen, S., and Jouzel, J.: 1993, ‘Comparison of Oxygen Isotope Records from the GISP2 and GRIP Greenland Ice Cores’, Nature 366, 552–554.
Guilderson, T. P., Fairbanks, R. G., and Rubenstein, J. L.: 1994, ‘Tropical Temperature Variations since 20,000 Years Ago: Modulating Interhemispheric Climate Change’, Science 263, 663–665.
Hansen, J., Ruedy, R., Sato, M., Imhoff, M., Lawrence, W., Easterling, D., Peterson, T., and Karl, T: 2001, ‘A Closer Look at United States and Global Surface Temperature Change’, J. Geophys. Res. 106, 23947–23963.
Hastenrath, S. and Greischar, L.: 1997, ‘Glacier Recession on Kilimanjaro, East Africa, 1912–89’, J. Glaciol. 43, 455–459.
Hastenrath, S. and Kruss, P. D.: 1992, ‘The Dramatic Retreat of Mount Kenya’s Glaciers between 1963 and 1987’, Ann. Glaciol. 16, 127–133.
Henderson, K. A., Thompson, L. G., and Lin, P.-N.: 1999, ‘Recording of El Niño in Ice Core δ18Oice Records from Nevado Huascarán’, J. Geophys. Res. 104, 31053–31065.
Herd, D. G. and Naeser, C. W.: 1974, ‘Mountain Snowline Lowering in the Tropical Andes’, Geology 2, 603–604.
Jones, P. D., New, M., Parker, D. E., Martin, S., and Rigor, I. G.: 1999, ‘Surface Air Temperature and its Changes over the Past 150 Years’, Rev. Geophys. 37, 173–199.
Johnsen, S. J., Dansgaard, W., Clausen, H. B., and Langway, C. C. Jr.: 1972, ‘Oxygen Isotope Profiles through the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets’, Nature 235, 429–433.
Jouzel, J., Lorius, C., Petit, J. R., Genthon, C., Barkov, N. I., Kotlyakov, V. M., and Petrov, V. M.: 1987, ‘Vostok Ice Core: A Continuous Isotope Temperature Record over the Last Climatic Cycle (160,000 years)’, Nature 329, 403–408.
Kaser, G. and Noggler, B.: 1991, ‘Observations on Speke Glacier, Ruwenzori Range Uganda’, J. Glaciol. 37, 315–318.
Klein, A. G., Isacks, B. L., and Bloom, A. L.: 1995, ‘Modern and Last Glacial Maximum Snowline in Peru and Bolivia: Implications for Regional Climatic Change’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’Études Andines 24, 607–617.
Liu, X. and Chen, B.: 2000, ‘Climatic Warming in the Tibetan Plateau during Recent Decades’, Int. J. Clim. 20, 1729–1742.
Mann, M. E., Bradley, R. S., and Hughes, M. K.: 1999, ‘Northern Hemisphere Temperatures during the Past Millennium: Inferences, Uncertainties, and Limitations’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 759–562.
Osmaston, H. A.: 1965, Snowline Lowering on the Mountains of Tropical Africa, Ph.D. Thesis, Oxford University, Worcester College.
Pierrehumbert, R. T.: 1999, ‘Huascarán δ18Oice as an Indicator of Tropical Climate during the Last Glacial Maximum’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 26, 1345–1348.
Pierrehumbert, R. T.: 2000, ‘Climate Change and the Tropical Pacific: The Sleeping Dragon Wakes’, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 97, 1355–1358.
Porter, S. C.: 1979, ‘Glacial Snowline Lowering in Hawaii’, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull. 90, 980–1093.
Rind, D.: 1998, ‘Latitudinal Temperature Gradients and Climate Change’, J. Geophys. Res. 103, 5943–5971.
Rodbell, D. T.: 1992, ‘Snowline Lowering in the Peruvian Andes’, Boreas 21, 43–52.
Schrag, D. P., Hampt, G., and Murray, D. W.: 1996, ‘Pore Fluid Constraints on the Temperature and Oxygen Isotopic Composition of the Glacial Ocean’, Science 272, 1930–1932.
Stute, M., Forster, M., Frischkorn, H., Serejo, A., Clark, J. F., Schlosser, P., Broecker, W. S., and Bonani, G.: 1995, ‘Cooling of Tropical Brazil (5°C) during the Last Glacial Maximum’, Science 269, 379–383.
Thompson, L. G.: 2000. ‘Ice Core Evidence for Climate Change in the Tropics: Implications for Our Future’, Quat. Sci. Rev. 19, 19–35.
Thompson, L. G., Davis, M. E., Mosley-Thompson, E., Sowers, T. A., Henderson, K. A., Zagorodnov, V. S., Lin, P.-N., Mikhalenko, V. N., Campen, R. K., Bolzan, J. F., and Cole-Dai, J. A.: 1998, ‘25,000 Year Tropical Climate History from Bolivian Ice Cores’, Science 282, 1858–1864.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson E., Bolzan, J. K., and Koci, B. R.: 1985, ‘A-1500 Year Record of Tropical Precipitation Recorded in Ice Cores from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru’, Science 229, 971–973.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Dansgaard, W., and Grootes, P. M.: 1986, ‘The “Little Ice Age” as Recorded in the Stratigraphy of the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap’, Science 234, 361–364.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis M. E., Henderson, K. A., Brecher, H. H., Zagorodnov, V. S., Mashiotta, T. A., Lin, P.-N., Mikhalenko, V. N., Hardy, D. R., and Beer J.: 2002, ‘Kilimanjaro Ice Core Records: Evidence of Holocene Climate Change in Tropical Africa’, Science 298, 589–593.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., Lin, P-N, Henderson, K. A., Cole-Dai, J., Bolzan, J. F., and Liu, K-B.: 1995, ‘Late Glacial Stage and Holocene Tropical Ice Core Records from Huascaran, Peru’, Science 269, 46–50.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., Lin, P.-N., Yao, T., Dyurgerov, M., and Dai, J.: 1993, ‘“Recent Warming”: Ice Core Evidence from Tropical Ice Cores with Emphasis upon Central Asia’, Global and Planetary Change 7, 145–156.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., and Henderson, K. A.: 2000a, ‘Ice Core Paleoclimate Records in Tropical South America since the Last Glacial Maximum’, J. Quat. Sci. 15, 377–394.
Thompson, L. G., Yao, T., Davis, M. E., Henderson, K. A., Mosley-Thompson, E., Lin, P.-N., Beer, J., Synal, H.-A., Cole-Dai, J., and Bolzan, J. E.: 1997, ‘Tropical Climate Instability: The Last Glacial Cycle from a Qinghai-Tibetan Ice Core’, Science, 276, 1821–1825.
Thompson, L. G., Yao, T., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., Henderson, K. A., and Lin, P.-N.: 2000b, ‘A High-Resolution Millennial Record of the South Asian Monsoon from Himalayan Ice Cores’, Science 289, 1916–1919.
Vuille, M. and Bradley, R. S.: 2000, ‘Mean Annual Temperature Trends and Their Vertical Structure in the Tropical Andes’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 27, 3885–3888.
Vuille, M., Bradley, R. S., Healy, R., Werner, M., Hardy, D. R., Thompson, L. G., and Keimig F.: 2002, ‘Modeling δ18Oice in Precipitation over the Tropical Americas, Part II: Simulation of the Stable Isotope Signal in Andean Ice Cores’, J. Geophys. Res., in press.
Yao, T., Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Zhihong, Y., Xingping, Z., and Lin, P.-N.: 1996, ‘Climatological Significance of δ18Oice in North Tibetan Ice Cores’, J. Geophys. Res. 101, 29531–29537.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Thompson, L.G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M.E., Lin, PN., Henderson, K., Mashiotta, T.A. (2003). Tropical Glacier and Ice Core Evidence of Climate Change on Annual to Millennial Time Scales. In: Diaz, H.F. (eds) Climate Variability and Change in High Elevation Regions: Past, Present & Future. Advances in Global Change Research, vol 15. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1252-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-1252-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-6322-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-1252-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive