Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan Plateau
Improvements in understanding glacial extents and chronologies for the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan on the Tibetan Plateau are required to understand regional climate changes during the Last Glacial cycle. A two-dimensional numerical model of mass balance, based on snow–ice...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2017-04-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016001477/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811155865536823296 |
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| author | XIANGKE XU BAOLIN PAN GUOCHENG DONG CHAOLU YI NEIL F. GLASSER |
| author_facet | XIANGKE XU BAOLIN PAN GUOCHENG DONG CHAOLU YI NEIL F. GLASSER |
| author_sort | XIANGKE XU |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Improvements in understanding glacial extents and chronologies for the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan on the Tibetan Plateau are required to understand regional climate changes during the Last Glacial cycle. A two-dimensional numerical model of mass balance, based on snow–ice melting factors, and of ice flow for mountain glaciers is used to assess the glacier sensitivity to climatic change in a catchment of the region. The model can reproduce valley glaciers, wide-tongued glaciers and a coalescing glacier within step temperature lowering and precipitation increasing experiments. The model sensitivity experiments also indicate that the dependence of glacier growth on temperature and/or precipitation is nonlinear. The model results suggest that the valley glaciers respond more sensitively to an imposed climate change than wide-tongued and coalescing glaciers. Guided by field geological evidence of former glacier extent and other independent paleoclimate reconstructions, the model is also used to constrain the most realistic multi-year mean temperatures to be 2.9–4.6°C and 1.8–2.5°C lower than present in the glacial stages of the Last Glacial Maximum and middle marine oxygen isotope stage 3, respectively. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:41:49Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-75ea1dbc03354d0496ebbb4c16614243 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:41:49Z |
| publishDate | 2017-04-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj.art-75ea1dbc03354d0496ebbb4c166142432023-03-09T12:40:20ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522017-04-016336137110.1017/jog.2016.147Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan PlateauXIANGKE XU0BAOLIN PAN1GUOCHENG DONG2CHAOLU YI3NEIL F. GLASSER4Key Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China State Key Laboratory of Cryospheric Sciences, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, CAS, Lanzhou 730000, ChinaCollege of Resources, Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710061, ChinaKey Laboratory of Tibetan Environment Changes and Land Surface Processes, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China CAS Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences, Beijing 100101, ChinaDepartment of Geography and Earth Sciences, Centre for Glaciology, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth SY233DB, UKImprovements in understanding glacial extents and chronologies for the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan on the Tibetan Plateau are required to understand regional climate changes during the Last Glacial cycle. A two-dimensional numerical model of mass balance, based on snow–ice melting factors, and of ice flow for mountain glaciers is used to assess the glacier sensitivity to climatic change in a catchment of the region. The model can reproduce valley glaciers, wide-tongued glaciers and a coalescing glacier within step temperature lowering and precipitation increasing experiments. The model sensitivity experiments also indicate that the dependence of glacier growth on temperature and/or precipitation is nonlinear. The model results suggest that the valley glaciers respond more sensitively to an imposed climate change than wide-tongued and coalescing glaciers. Guided by field geological evidence of former glacier extent and other independent paleoclimate reconstructions, the model is also used to constrain the most realistic multi-year mean temperatures to be 2.9–4.6°C and 1.8–2.5°C lower than present in the glacial stages of the Last Glacial Maximum and middle marine oxygen isotope stage 3, respectively.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016001477/type/journal_articleglacier and climateLast Glacialnumerical glacier modelingwestern Nyaiqentanglha Shan |
| spellingShingle | XIANGKE XU BAOLIN PAN GUOCHENG DONG CHAOLU YI NEIL F. GLASSER Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan Plateau Journal of Glaciology glacier and climate Last Glacial numerical glacier modeling western Nyaiqentanglha Shan |
| title | Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan Plateau |
| title_full | Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan Plateau |
| title_fullStr | Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan Plateau |
| title_full_unstemmed | Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan Plateau |
| title_short | Last Glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western Nyaiqentanglha Shan, Tibetan Plateau |
| title_sort | last glacial climate reconstruction by exploring glacier sensitivity to climate on the southeastern slope of the western nyaiqentanglha shan tibetan plateau |
| topic | glacier and climate Last Glacial numerical glacier modeling western Nyaiqentanglha Shan |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143016001477/type/journal_article |
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