Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation
Abstract
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.
- Authors:
-
- 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
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1565327
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725; EAR 1304909; AGS-1203430
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Nature Communications
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 6; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
- Publisher:
- Nature Publishing Group
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Shakun, Jeremy D., Clark, Peter U., He, Feng, Lifton, Nathaniel A., Liu, Zhengyu, and Otto-Bliesner, Bette L. Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms9059.
Shakun, Jeremy D., Clark, Peter U., He, Feng, Lifton, Nathaniel A., Liu, Zhengyu, & Otto-Bliesner, Bette L. Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation. United States. doi:10.1038/ncomms9059.
Shakun, Jeremy D., Clark, Peter U., He, Feng, Lifton, Nathaniel A., Liu, Zhengyu, and Otto-Bliesner, Bette L. Fri .
"Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation". United States. doi:10.1038/ncomms9059. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1565327.
@article{osti_1565327,
title = {Regional and global forcing of glacier retreat during the last deglaciation},
author = {Shakun, Jeremy D. and Clark, Peter U. and He, Feng and Lifton, Nathaniel A. and Liu, Zhengyu and Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.},
abstractNote = {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.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms9059},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = 1,
volume = 6,
place = {United States},
year = {2015},
month = {8}
}
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