Retreating glacier fronts on the Antarctic Peninsula over the past half-century

The continued retreat of ice shelves on the Antarctic Peninsula has been widely attributed to recent atmospheric warming, but there is little published work describing changes in glacier margin positions. We present trends in 244 marine glacier fronts on the peninsula and associated islands over the past 61 years. Of these glaciers, 87% have retreated and a clear boundary between mean advance and retreat has migrated progressively southward. The pattern is broadly compatible with retreat driven by atmospheric warming, but the rapidity of the migration suggests that this may not be the sole driver of glacier retreat in this region.     

Glaciers dominate eustatic sea-level rise in the 21st century

Ice loss to the sea currently accounts for virtually all of the sea-level rise that is not attributable to ocean warming, and about 60% of the ice loss is from glaciers and ice caps rather than from the two ice sheets. The contribution of these smaller glaciers has accelerated over the past decade, in part due to marked thinning and retreat of marine-terminating glaciers associated with a dynamic instability that is generally not considered in mass-balance and climate modeling. This acceleration of glacier melt may cause 0.1 to 0.25 meter of additional sea-level rise by 2100.     

1987-2015年祁连山冰川退缩及未来变化趋势研究

利用1987和2015年Landsat遥感影像解译分析祁连山地区冰川变化,研究冰川变化的影响因素.结果表明,祁连山冰川退缩较为严重,面积从1987年的2072.7 km2减少到2015年的1506.3 km2,28年来总退缩率为27.3%,年均退缩率为0.98%;冰川存在一定的地形/温度分布差异,海拔在4900~5100 m,坡度为10°~20°,坡向以北和东北方向为主,夏季气温为3~5℃时,是冰川发育的聚集区;冰川退缩也存在一定的地形/温度分布差异,海拔4200~4300 m,坡度10°~20°,坡向南和东南方向,夏季气温小于2℃,是冰川退缩最快的区间.以温度为主导的模拟研究表明,研究区冰川未来15和30年退缩严重,退缩率分别达到10.9%和33.5%.     

Sensitivity of glaciers and small ice caps to greenhouse warming

Recent field programs on glaciers have supplied information that makes simulation of glacier mass balance with meteorological models meaningful. An estimate of world-wide glacier sensitivity based on a modeling study of 12 selected glaciers situated in widely differing climatic regimes shows that for a uniform 1 K warming the area-weighted glacier mass balance will decrease by 0.40 meter per year. This corresponds to a sea-level rise of 0.58 millimeter per year, a value significantly less than earlier estimates.     

Extracting a climate signal from 169 glacier records

I constructed a temperature history for different parts of the world from 169 glacier length records. Using a first-order theory of glacier dynamics, I related changes in glacier length to changes in temperature. The derived temperature histories are fully independent of proxy and instrumental data used in earlier reconstructions. Moderate global warming started in the middle of the 19th century. The reconstructed warming in the first half of the 20th century is 0.5 kelvin. This warming was notably coherent over the globe. The warming signals from glaciers at low and high elevations appear to be very similar.     

Temporal relationships of carbon cycling and ocean circulation at glacial boundaries

Evidence from high-sedimentation-rate South Atlantic deep-sea cores indicates that global and Southern Ocean carbon budget shifts preceded thermohaline circulation changes during the last ice age initiation and termination and that these were preceded by ice-sheet growth and retreat, respectively. No consistent lead-lag relationships are observed during abrupt millennial warming events during the last ice age, allowing for the possibility that ocean circulation triggered some millenial climate changes. At the major glacial-interglacial transitions, the global carbon budget and thermohaline ocean circulation responded sequentially to the climate changes that forced the growth and decline of continental ice sheets.     

Near-synchronous interhemispheric termination of the last glacial maximum in mid-latitudes

Isotopic records from polar ice cores imply globally asynchronous warming at the end of the last glaciation. However, 10Be exposure dates show that large-scale retreat of mid-latitude Last Glacial Maximum glaciers commenced at about the same time in both hemispheres. The timing of retreat is consistent with the onset of temperature and atmospheric CO2 increases in Antarctic ice cores. We suggest that a global trend of rising summer temperatures at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum was obscured in North Atlantic regions by hypercold winters associated with unusually extensive winter sea ice.     

Simulating Arctic climate warmth and icefield retreat in the last interglaciation

In the future, Arctic warming and the melting of polar glaciers will be considerable, but the magnitude of both is uncertain. We used a global climate model, a dynamic ice sheet model, and paleoclimatic data to evaluate Northern Hemisphere high-latitude warming and its impact on Arctic icefields during the Last Interglaciation. Our simulated climate matches paleoclimatic observations of past warming, and the combination of physically based climate and ice-sheet modeling with ice-core constraints indicate that the Greenland Ice Sheet and other circum-Arctic ice fields likely contributed 2.2 to 3.4 meters of sea-level rise during the Last Interglaciation.     

气候变化对新疆区域水资源的影响评估

水是影响人类生存的首要问题,也是制约和影响新疆经济社会发展与生态环境保护的关键因素。20世纪50年代以来,新疆洪水发生频次增高、灾害损失增加;极端洪水呈区域性加重趋势,以南疆区域最为显著;伴随着冰川退缩加剧,融水量增大,冰雪洪水、雪崩、风吹雪、冰崩灾害随着气候变化引起的冬季积雪增加和气温升高,其灾频次增加,强度增强。随着新疆气候向暖湿转变,全疆大多数河流径流量均有不同程度的增加;空间分布上,天山山区增加尤其明显,其他地区有不同程度的增加,昆仑山北坡略微有减少。水汽净收入量和水汽转化率均无显著变化趋势。气候变暧导致径流的年内分配更加不均匀,春旱夏洪的危害更加凸显,水资源的供需矛盾和洪水威胁加重。因此,在全球气候变化不断加速的趋势下,需加强气候变化对新疆区域水资源的影响评估和适应性管理对策研究,使科学技术在减灾方面发挥主导作用。     

Rapid changes in ice discharge from Greenland outlet glaciers

Using satellite-derived surface elevation and velocity data, we found major short-term variations in recent ice discharge and mass loss at two of Greenland's largest outlet glaciers. Their combined rate of mass loss doubled in less than a year in 2004 and then decreased in 2006 to near the previous rates, likely as a result of fast re-equilibration of calving-front geometry after retreat. Total mass loss is a fraction of concurrent gravity-derived estimates, pointing to an alternative source of loss and the need for high-resolution observations of outlet dynamics and glacier geometry for sea-level rise predictions.     

Enhanced modern heat transfer to the Arctic by warm Atlantic Water

The Arctic is responding more rapidly to global warming than most other areas on our planet. Northward-flowing Atlantic Water is the major means of heat advection toward the Arctic and strongly affects the sea ice distribution. Records of its natural variability are critical for the understanding of feedback mechanisms and the future of the Arctic climate system, but continuous historical records reach back only ~150 years. Here, we present a multidecadal-scale record of ocean temperature variations during the past 2000 years, derived from marine sediments off Western Svalbard (79°N). We find that early-21st-century temperatures of Atlantic Water entering the Arctic Ocean are unprecedented over the past 2000 years and are presumably linked to the Arctic amplification of global warming.     

全球气候变暖与东北植被分布关系的研究

根据大气环流模型预测,到21世纪中叶,大气中CO2浓度将增加1倍,气温升高约2℃。全球气候变暖对我国东北植被的响应如下：①未来东北森林建群种的变动类型可划分为3个类群,即扩展种群、退却种群和绝灭种群。②气候变暖后,根据模型预测,植物种群将向北迁移400～700 km,向上迁移250～350 m。根据上述结论提出了适应全球气候变化的保护对策。     

东北稻作系统对气候变暖的实际响应与适应

【目的】明确气候变暖对作物生产的实际影响,降低对未来粮食安全预测的不确定性。【方法】依据东北水稻生产和气候变化的长期观测数据,并结合田间开放式增温试验（free air temperature increase,FATI）,系统研究稻作系统对气候变暖的实际响应与适应。【结果】历史数据分析发现,近几十年来东北水稻单产与其生长季的气温呈明显递增趋势,相关显著,但与降水量变化相关不显著。理论推算表明,水稻生长季最低气温升高1℃,水稻单产可提高6.0%以上。田间试验发现,在目前的气温背景下,水稻冠层气温升高1℃,单产可提高10%左右。近四十年来东北水稻新品种的生育期每10年约延长3 d,与近二十年来田间观测到的水稻实际生育期延长幅度基本一致,达5 d左右;与1970年相比,2010年黑龙江省的水稻种植面积扩大了24倍,种植重心向北位移了近110 km,与东北水稻生长季≥10℃有效积温带北移的幅度一致。【结论】气候变暖对东北水稻的直接增产效应显著,稻作系统可以通过品种改良、栽培改进和区域调整等策略来逐步适应气候变化的趋势。在应对气候变化的稻作制度调整上,应充分挖掘增温的增产效应及作物系统的适应潜力,调整时机和幅度应适当迟后于预测的气候变化进程。在气候变暖的大趋势下,要注意因水稻生育期延长和种植区域北扩而可能遭遇的低温冷害等极端性天气。     

Ice core records of atmospheric CO2 around the last three glacial terminations

Air trapped in bubbles in polar ice cores constitutes an archive for the reconstruction of the global carbon cycle and the relation between greenhouse gases and climate in the past. High-resolution records from Antarctic ice cores show that carbon dioxide concentrations increased by 80 to 100 parts per million by volume 600 +/- 400 years after the warming of the last three deglaciations. Despite strongly decreasing temperatures, high carbon dioxide concentrations can be sustained for thousands of years during glaciations; the size of this phase lag is probably connected to the duration of the preceding warm period, which controls the change in land ice coverage and the buildup of the terrestrial biosphere.     

Recent sea-level contributions of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets

After a century of polar exploration, the past decade of satellite measurements has painted an altogether new picture of how Earth's ice sheets are changing. As global temperatures have risen, so have rates of snowfall, ice melting, and glacier flow. Although the balance between these opposing processes has varied considerably on a regional scale, data show that Antarctica and Greenland are each losing mass overall. Our best estimate of their combined imbalance is about 125 gigatons per year of ice, enough to raise sea level by 0.35 millimeters per year. This is only a modest contribution to the present rate of sea-level rise of 3.0 millimeters per year. However, much of the loss from Antarctica and Greenland is the result of the flow of ice to the ocean from ice streams and glaciers, which has accelerated over the past decade. In both continents, there are suspected triggers for the accelerated ice discharge-surface and ocean warming, respectively-and, over the course of the 21st century, these processes could rapidly counteract the snowfall gains predicted by present coupled climate models.     

全球变暖对四川气候旅游资源的影响探析

利用四川省139个站点1961～2004年月平均气温和降水资料,并选取九寨沟、海螺沟、峨眉山、蜀南竹海4个旅游景区的气象站点,统计分析了其在全球变暖的背景下的气候变化趋势,进而研究了气候变暖对四川旅游气候资源的影响。结果表明,20世纪90年代以来,与全球变暖相对应,四川地区年均气温呈上升趋势、年降水量呈下降趋势,6个景点的气候变化趋势也基本有类似的响应,这对于以水为景、以气为景的旅游景区(如九寨)的可持续发展提出了挑战。但是冬暖气候在导致降水量减少、冰川面积减少、积雪量减少、雪线上升的同时,也提供了开展冬季旅游、重构现有旅游格局、挖掘新的旅游资源、拓展新的特色旅游空间的机遇。在此基础上,研究提出了主动适应全球变暖的气候响应,大力开展冬季旅游的建议。     

Seasonal movements in a salt glacier in iran

The philosophy of the storage of high-grade radioactive wastes in salt seems to be based on the assumption that the salt glaciers of Iran are no longer moving. Monitoring the movements of markers painted onto one of the salt glaciers suggests that the glacier deforms elastically as a result of temperature changes most of the time but flows plastically when it is sufficiently wet during each annual rainy season.     

Effects of basal debris on glacier flow

Glacier movement is resisted partially by debris, either within glaciers or under glaciers in water-saturated layers. In experiments beneath a thick, sliding glacier, ice containing 2 to 11% debris exerted shear traction of 60 to 200 kilopascals on a smooth rock bed, comparable to the total shear traction beneath glaciers and contrary to the usual assumption that debris-bed friction is negligible. Imposed pore-water pressure that was 60 to 100% of the normal stress in a subglacial debris layer reduced shear traction on the debris sufficiently to halt its deformation and cause slip of ice over the debris. Slip resistance was thus less than debris shearing resistance.     

Formation of glaciers on Mars by atmospheric precipitation at high obliquity

Surface conditions on Mars are currently cold and dry, with water ice unstable on the surface except near the poles. However, geologically recent glacierlike landforms have been identified in the tropics and the midlatitudes of Mars. The ice has been proposed to originate from either a subsurface reservoir or the atmosphere. We present high-resolution climate simulations performed with a model designed to simulate the present-day Mars water cycle but assuming a 45 degrees obliquity as experienced by Mars a few million years ago. The model predicts ice accumulation in regions where glacier landforms are observed, on the western flanks of the great volcanoes and in the eastern Hellas region. This agreement points to an atmospheric origin for the ice and reveals how precipitation could have formed glaciers on Mars.     

Interhemispheric ice-sheet synchronicity during the Last Glacial Maximum

The timing of the last maximum extent of the Antarctic ice sheets relative to those in the Northern Hemisphere remains poorly understood. We develop a chronology for the Weddell Sea sector of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet that, combined with ages from other Antarctic ice-sheet sectors, indicates that the advance to and retreat from their maximum extent was within dating uncertainties synchronous with most sectors of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Surface climate forcing of Antarctic mass balance would probably cause an opposite response, whereby a warming climate would increase accumulation but not surface melting. Our new data support teleconnections involving sea-level forcing from Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and changes in North Atlantic deep-water formation and attendant heat flux to Antarctic grounding lines to synchronize the hemispheric ice sheets.