Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway

Hiemstra, John; Young, Giles; Loader, Neil; Gordon, Penny R.

doi:10.1111/bor.12562

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Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway

John Hiemstra

, Giles Young, Neil Loader

, Penny R. Gordon

Boreas, Volume: 51, Issue: 2, Pages: 350 - 363

Swansea University Authors: John Hiemstra , Giles Young, Neil Loader

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DOI (Published version): 10.1111/bor.12562

Abstract

Developing a long‐term understanding of the cryosphere is important in the study of past climatic change. Here we used a nested approach combining diverse instrumental (monthly meteorological data from four weather stations, as well as gridded data) and proxy data (based on blue intensity measuremen...

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Published in:	Boreas
ISSN:	0300-9483 1502-3885
Published:	Wiley 2022
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa58394

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Here we used a nested approach combining diverse instrumental (monthly meteorological data from four weather stations, as well as gridded data) and proxy data (based on blue intensity measurements from local tree ring records) to create a reconstruction of past summer temperature for the central Jotunheimen area in southern Norway. This record was then used to reconstruct annual glacier mass balance from 1962, the start of the yearly measurements, back to 1722, immediately prior to the regional Little Ice Age maximum. Our reconstruction of the ‘average’ Jotunheimen cumulative glacier mass balance is based on three representative glaciers (Storbreen, Hellstugubreen and Gråsubreen) that were synthesized into one composite record which we term ‘Gjennomsnittsbreen’ (‘mean glacier’ in Norwegian) to filter out localized controls on the behaviour of individual glaciers. While not ignoring the role of precipitation on glacier mass balance, our reconstruction demonstrates that glaciers in this region exhibit a strong summer temperature control and appear to have been declining more or less continuously since the mid‐18th century. However, it also shows that this long‐term trend of overall retreat in Jotunheimen is punctuated by relatively short‐lived periods of neutral or occasionally positive glacier mass balance, signifying periods of stillstand or small‐scale glacier advance. These periods or ‘events’ in our reconstruction were compared with an independent record of 12 moraine‐building events developed using lichenometry. A minimum of 10 of the moraine‐building events identifiable in our reconstruction were also identifiable in the lichenometric data which affords confidence in the performance of our interrogative model. 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spelling	2022-05-16T16:15:29.7062008 v2 58394 2021-10-18 Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway fa99fa6ac238739f5e92fd88069c4036 0000-0003-3148-0206 John Hiemstra John Hiemstra true false e0c807e6b9b663f1c297feecd2f54c3a Giles Young Giles Young true false 8267a62100791965d08df6a7842676e6 0000-0002-6841-1813 Neil Loader Neil Loader true false 2021-10-18 BGPS Developing a long‐term understanding of the cryosphere is important in the study of past climatic change. Here we used a nested approach combining diverse instrumental (monthly meteorological data from four weather stations, as well as gridded data) and proxy data (based on blue intensity measurements from local tree ring records) to create a reconstruction of past summer temperature for the central Jotunheimen area in southern Norway. This record was then used to reconstruct annual glacier mass balance from 1962, the start of the yearly measurements, back to 1722, immediately prior to the regional Little Ice Age maximum. Our reconstruction of the ‘average’ Jotunheimen cumulative glacier mass balance is based on three representative glaciers (Storbreen, Hellstugubreen and Gråsubreen) that were synthesized into one composite record which we term ‘Gjennomsnittsbreen’ (‘mean glacier’ in Norwegian) to filter out localized controls on the behaviour of individual glaciers. While not ignoring the role of precipitation on glacier mass balance, our reconstruction demonstrates that glaciers in this region exhibit a strong summer temperature control and appear to have been declining more or less continuously since the mid‐18th century. However, it also shows that this long‐term trend of overall retreat in Jotunheimen is punctuated by relatively short‐lived periods of neutral or occasionally positive glacier mass balance, signifying periods of stillstand or small‐scale glacier advance. These periods or ‘events’ in our reconstruction were compared with an independent record of 12 moraine‐building events developed using lichenometry. A minimum of 10 of the moraine‐building events identifiable in our reconstruction were also identifiable in the lichenometric data which affords confidence in the performance of our interrogative model. A critical implication of this successful glacier mass balance reconstruction based on just summer temperature is that for Jotunheimen – in contrast to Norwegian maritime glaciers further to the west – there is no need (as was proposed in some previous studies) to invoke large, prolonged increases in winter snowfall to explain glacier advances, not even for events such as the Little Ice Age. Journal Article Boreas 51 2 350 363 Wiley 0300-9483 1502-3885 1 4 2022 2022-04-01 10.1111/bor.12562 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University 2022-05-16T16:15:29.7062008 2021-10-18T15:45:55.8837727 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Geography John Hiemstra 0000-0003-3148-0206 1 Giles Young 2 Neil Loader 0000-0002-6841-1813 3 Penny R. Gordon 4 58394__21218__f3b3a4d4e91240d8a352af66ccc4dec6.pdf bor.12562.pdf 2021-10-18T15:45:55.8551213 Output 1707063 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway
spellingShingle	Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway John Hiemstra Giles Young Neil Loader
title_short	Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway
title_full	Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway
title_fullStr	Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway
title_full_unstemmed	Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway
title_sort	Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway
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author	John Hiemstra Giles Young Neil Loader
author2	John Hiemstra Giles Young Neil Loader Penny R. Gordon
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description	Developing a long‐term understanding of the cryosphere is important in the study of past climatic change. Here we used a nested approach combining diverse instrumental (monthly meteorological data from four weather stations, as well as gridded data) and proxy data (based on blue intensity measurements from local tree ring records) to create a reconstruction of past summer temperature for the central Jotunheimen area in southern Norway. This record was then used to reconstruct annual glacier mass balance from 1962, the start of the yearly measurements, back to 1722, immediately prior to the regional Little Ice Age maximum. Our reconstruction of the ‘average’ Jotunheimen cumulative glacier mass balance is based on three representative glaciers (Storbreen, Hellstugubreen and Gråsubreen) that were synthesized into one composite record which we term ‘Gjennomsnittsbreen’ (‘mean glacier’ in Norwegian) to filter out localized controls on the behaviour of individual glaciers. While not ignoring the role of precipitation on glacier mass balance, our reconstruction demonstrates that glaciers in this region exhibit a strong summer temperature control and appear to have been declining more or less continuously since the mid‐18th century. However, it also shows that this long‐term trend of overall retreat in Jotunheimen is punctuated by relatively short‐lived periods of neutral or occasionally positive glacier mass balance, signifying periods of stillstand or small‐scale glacier advance. These periods or ‘events’ in our reconstruction were compared with an independent record of 12 moraine‐building events developed using lichenometry. A minimum of 10 of the moraine‐building events identifiable in our reconstruction were also identifiable in the lichenometric data which affords confidence in the performance of our interrogative model. A critical implication of this successful glacier mass balance reconstruction based on just summer temperature is that for Jotunheimen – in contrast to Norwegian maritime glaciers further to the west – there is no need (as was proposed in some previous studies) to invoke large, prolonged increases in winter snowfall to explain glacier advances, not even for events such as the Little Ice Age.
published_date	2022-04-01T20:18:52Z
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Interrogating glacier mass balance response to climatic change since the Little Ice Age: reconstructions for the Jotunheimen region, southern Norway

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