Ellen Mosley-Thompson

Late Glacial Stage and Holocene Tropical Ice Core Records from Huascarán, Peru

Two ice cores from the col of Huascar�n in the north-central Andes of Peru contain a paleoclimatic history extending well into the Wisconsinan (W�rm) Glacial Stage and include evidence of the Younger Dryas cool phase. Glacial stage conditions at high elevations in the tropics appear to have been as much as 8� to 12�C cooler than today, the atmosphere contained about 200 times as much dust, and the Amazon Basin forest cover may have been much less extensive. Differences in both the oxygen isotope ratio ζ18O (8 per mil) and the deuterium excess (4.5 per mil) from the Late Glacial Stage to the Holocene are comparable with polar ice core records. These data imply that the tropical Atlantic was possibly 5� to 6�C cooler during the Late Glacial Stage, that the climate was warmest from 8400 to 5200 years before present, and that it cooled gradually, culminating with the Little Ice Age (200 to 500 years before present). A strong warming has dominated the last two centuries.

Holocene—Late Pleistocene Climatic Ice Core Records from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Three ice cores to bedrock from the Dunde ice cap on the north-central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau of China provide a detailed record of Holocene and Wisconsin-W�rm late glacial stage (LGS) climate changes in the subtropics. The records reveal that LGS conditions were apparently colder, wetter, and dustier than Holocene conditions. The LGS part of the cores is characterized by more negative δ18O ratios, increased dust content, decreased soluble aerosol concentrations, and reduced ice crystal sizes than the Holocene part. These changes occurred rapidly ∼10,000 years ago. In addition, the last 60 years were apparently one of the warmest periods in the entire record, equalling levels of the Holocene maximum between 6000 and 8000 years ago.

A 1500-year record of tropical precipitation in ice cores from the quelccaya ice cap, peru.

Two ice cores, covering 1500 years of climatic information, from the summit (5670 meters) of the tropical Quelccaya ice cap, in the Andes of southern Peru, provide information on general environmental conditions including droughts, volcanic activity, moisture sources, temperature, and glacier net balance. The net balance record reconstructed from these cores reflects major precipitation trends for the southern Andes of Peru. These records indicate extended dry periods between 1720 and 1860, 1250 and 1310, and 570 and 610; wet conditions prevailed between 1500 and 1720. Establishing a tropical precipitation record may help explain climatic fluctuations since the tropical evaporation-precipitation cycle is a principal mechanism driving the atmospheric circulation.

The Little Ice Age as Recorded in the Stratigraphy of the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap

The analyses of two ice cores from a southern tropical ice cap provide a record of climatic conditions over 1000 years for a region where other proxy records are nearly absent. Annual variations in visible dust layers, oxygen isotopes, microparticle concentrations, conductivity, and identification of the historical (A.D. 1600) Huaynaputina ash permit accurate dating and time-scale verification. The fact that the Little Ice Age (about A.D. 1500 to 1900) stands out as a significant climatic event in the oxygen isotope and electrical conductivity records confirms the worldwide character of this event.

Ice-core palaeoclimate records in tropical South America since the Last Glacial Maximum

Ice-core records spanning the last 25 000 yr from the tropical Andes of South America are reviewed. These records from Quelccaya, Huascaran and Sajama present a high temporal resolution picture of both the Late Glacial Stage (LGS) and the Holocene climatic and environmental conditions in the South American Andes. Late Glacial Stage conditions at high elevations appear to have been cooler than today, although the magnitude of the inferred cooling differs with the particular proxy used (e.g. snowline depression, pollen, ice cores). Insoluble dust and anion concentrations in the ice cores reveal that LGS hydrological conditions in the tropics (9°S) were much drier than today, whereas in the subtropics (18°S) LGS conditions were much wetter. This probably reflects the migration of the tropical Hadley Cell in response to a different meridional temperature gradient. Low nitrate concentrations in the LGS ice from both Huascaran and Sajama suggest that the Amazon Basin forest cover may have been much less extensive. Discussed is the conundrum surrounding the use of d 18 O as a palaeothermometer in the tropics, where temperatures exhibit little seasonal variation yet the ice-core records suggest that d 18 O records temperature variations on decadal to millennial time-scales. Finally evidence is presented for a strong twentieth century warming. Copyright

Tropical Glacier and Ice Core Evidence of Climate Change on Annual to Millennial Time Scales

This paper examines the potential of the stable isotopic ratios, 18O/16O (δ 18Oice)and 2H/1H (δ Dice), preserved in mid to low latitude glaciers as a toolfor 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 δ 18O-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 δ 18Oice of the snowfall that sustains these high mountainice fields.Decadally averaged δ 18Oice records from threeAndean and three Tibetan ice cores are composited to produce a low latitude δ 18Oice history for the last millennium. Comparison ofthis ice core composite with the Northern Hemisphere proxy record (1000–2000A.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 situobservations 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.

El Niño-Southern Oscillation Events Recorded in the Stratigraphy of the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru

Snow accumulation measured during 1982-1983 on the Quelccaya ice cap, Peru, was 70 percent of the average from 1975 through 1983. Inspection of 19 years (1964 through 1983) of accumulation measured near the summit of Quelccaya reveals a substantial decrease (∼30 percent) in association with the last five El Ni�o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) occurrences in the equatorial Pacific. The ENSO phenomenon is now recognized as a global event arising from large-scale interactions between the ocean and the atmosphere. Understanding this extreme event, with the goal of prediction, requires a record of past occurrences. The Quelccaya ice cap, which contains 1500 years of annually accumulated ice layers, may provide a long and detailed record of the most extreme ENSO events.

Hypothesized climate forcing time series for the last 500 years

A new compilation of annually resolved time series of atmospheric trace gas concentrations, solar irradiance, tropospheric aerosol optical depth, and stratospheric (volcanic) aerosol optical depth is presented for use in climate modeling studies of the period 1500 to 1999 A.D. Atmospheric CO 2 , CH 4 , and N 2 O concentrations over this period are well established on the basis of fossil air trapped in ice cores and instrumental measurements over the last few decades. Estimates of solar irradiance, ranging between 1364.2 and 1368.2 W/m 2 , are presented using calibrated historical observations of the Sun back to 1610, along with cosmogenic isotope variations extending back to 1500. Tropospheric aerosol distributions are calculated by scaling the modern distribution of sulfate and carbonaceous aerosol optical depths back to 1860 using reconstructed regional CO 2 emissions; prior to 1860 the anthropogenic tropospheric aerosol optical depths are assumed to be zero. Finally, the first continuous, annually dated record of zonally averaged stratospheric (volcanic) optical depths back to 1500 is constructed using sulfate flux data from multiple ice cores from both Greenland and Antarctica, in conjunction with historical and instrumental (satellite and pyrheliometric) observations. The climate forcings generated here are currently being used as input to a suite of transient (time dependent) paleoclimate model simulations of the past 500 years. These forcings are also available for comparison with instrumental and proxy paleoclimate data of the same period.

Climatological significance of δ18O in north Tibetan ice cores

Oxygen isotopic ratios (δ18O) of precipitation samples collected over several years at three meteorological stations on the northern Tibetan Plateau were used to conduct the first investigation of the relationship between δ18O and contemporaneous air temperatures (Ta). Inferring past temperatures from δ18O measured in recently acquired Tibetan ice cores necessitates establishing whether a δ18O-Ta relationship exists. For each station a strong temporal relationship is found between δ18O and Ta, particularly for monthly averages which remove synoptic-scale influences such as changes in condensation level, condensation temperature, and moisture sources. Moisture source is identified as a major factor in the spatial distribution of δ18O, but air temperature determines the temporal fluctuations of δ18O at individual sites on the northern Tibetan Plateau. The 30-year records of annually averaged δ18O from three different ice coring sites are not correlated significantly with contemporaneous air temperature records from their closest meteorological station (150 to 200 km). However, since 1960 the three air temperature records reveal a modest warming trend, while the three contemporaneous δ18O records show a modest 18O enrichment.

Annually Resolved Ice Core Records of Tropical Climate Variability over the Past ~1800 Years

Quelccaya Ice Cap Ice cores drilled in the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are some of the most important sources of information about the paleoclimate of high latitudes. Comparable records from the tropics are rare, however, because there are so few locations at which long-lived, undisturbed ice can be found. Thompson et al. (p. 945, published online 4 April) report results obtained from one of the few such sites, the Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes. The annually resolved data, extending back 1800 years, provide a detailed chronicle of changes in the isotopic composition of the oxygen in the ice, which are related to the sea surface temperature of the waters source. Analyses of a collection of major ions such as ammonium and nitrate reveal how atmospheric circulation in the region varied over that period. Finally, the radiocarbon content of ancient plants—recently exposed by the retreat of the ice sheet—reveals that Quelccaya has not been smaller for at least six thousand years. A record from the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru shows the variability of climate in the tropical Andes. Ice cores from low latitudes can provide a wealth of unique information about past climate in the tropics, but they are difficult to recover and few exist. Here, we report annually resolved ice core records from the Quelccaya ice cap (5670 meters above sea level) in Peru that extend back ~1800 years and provide a high-resolution record of climate variability there. Oxygen isotopic ratios (δ18O) are linked to sea surface temperatures in the tropical eastern Pacific, whereas concentrations of ammonium and nitrate document the dominant role played by the migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the region of the tropical Andes. Quelccaya continues to retreat and thin. Radiocarbon dates on wetland plants exposed along its retreating margins indicate that it has not been smaller for at least six millennia.