Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation

Shakun, Jeremy D.; Clark, Peter U.; He, Feng; Lifton, Nathaniel A.; Liu, Zhengyu; Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.

doi:10.1038/ncomms9059

Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation

Journal Article · Fri Aug 21 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Nature Communications

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms9059· OSTI ID:1565327

Shakun, Jeremy D. ^[1]; Clark, Peter U. ^[2]; He, Feng ^[3]; Lifton, Nathaniel A. ^[4]; Liu, Zhengyu ^[5]; Otto-Bliesner, Bette L. ^[6]

Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA (United States). Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Nelson Inst. for Environmental Studies; Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States). College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences
Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States)
Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States). Nelson Inst. for Environmental Studies
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States). Climate and Global Dynamics Division

The ongoing retreat of glaciers globally is one of the clearest manifestations of recent global warming associated with rising greenhouse gas concentrations. By comparison, the importance of greenhouse gases in driving glacier retreat during the most recent deglaciation, the last major interval of global warming, is unclear due to uncertainties in the timing of retreat around the world. Here we use recently improved cosmogenic-nuclide production-rate calibrations to recalculate the ages of 1,116 glacial boulders from 195 moraines that provide broad coverage of retreat in mid-to-low-latitude regions. This revised history, in conjunction with transient climate model simulations, suggests that while several regional-scale forcings, including insolation, ice sheets and ocean circulation, modulated glacier responses regionally, they are unable to account for global-scale retreat, which is most likely related to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725

OSTI ID:: 1565327

Journal Information:: Nature Communications, Journal Name: Nature Communications Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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