Influence of seasonality on glacier mass balance, and implications for palaeoclimate reconstructions |
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Authors: | Nicholas Golledge Alun Hubbard Tom Bradwell |
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Institution: | (1) Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand;(2) Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, The University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK;(3) British Geological Survey, Murchison House, West Mains Road, Edinburgh, UK |
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Abstract: | Climates inferred from former glacier geometries in some areas exhibit discrepancies with regional palaeoclimates predicted
by General Circulation Models (GCMs) and modelling of palaeoecological data, possibly as a consequence of their differing
treatments of climatic seasonality. Since glacier-based climate reconstructions potentially offer an important tool in the
calibration of GCMs, which themselves need validation if used to predict future climate scenarios, we attempt to resolve mismatches
between these techniques by (1) investigating the influence of seasonality on glacier mass balance, and (2) refining the methodology
used for the derivation of glacier-based palaeoclimates. Focussing on the Younger Dryas stadial glaciation of Scotland, northeast
Atlantic, we show that sea-ice amplified seasonality led to a significantly drier climate than has been suggested by glacier-based
interpretations. This was characterised by a relatively short ablation season and the survival of a more substantial winter
snowpack. We suggest that if palaeoglaciological studies were to account for changes in seasonal temperature and precipitation
variability, their results would agree more closely with the cold, arid, northeast Atlantic palaeoenvironment predicted by
atmospheric modelling and northwest European pollen studies, and would therefore provide more accurate constraints for GCM
calibration. |
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