Journal
GLOBAL AND PLANETARY CHANGE
Volume 86-87, Issue -, Pages 101-109Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2012.02.010
Keywords
Andes; Andean glaciers; glacier climatology; glacier sensitivity; glacier response
Funding
- Fulbright-Conicyt Doctoral Fellowship
- Department of Geology at the University of Cincinnati
- NSF [EAR-1003072]
- Division Of Earth Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1003072] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Recent glacial and climate models suggest that glaciers located in contrasting climates could respond with different magnitudes to identical climatic perturbations. This implies that to understand the response of glaciers to a particular climate perturbation or to compare glacial fluctuations between different regions, climate conditions that permit glaciers to exist must be taken into account. In this study we systematize, classify, and identify the spatial distribution of the climates that permit the occurrence of present-day glaciers in the climatically diverse Andes. A first approximation suggests that a sample of 234 Andean glaciers exist under three distinctive combinations of temperature and precipitation conditions: i) cold and dry, ii) intermediate, and iii) warm and wet conditions. Cluster analysis (CA) and Principal Component analysis (PCA) of temperature, precipitation, and humidity reveal seven climatic configurations that support present-day Andean glaciers and suggest that these configurations have a distinctive geographical distribution. The groups are: 1) inner tropics and Tierra del Fuego, 2) wetter outer tropics, 3) drier outer tropics, 4) subtropics, 5) central Chile-Argentina (semi-arid), 6) northern and central Patagonia, and 7) southern Patagonia. This classification provides a basis to examine the spatial variability of glacier sensitivity to climate change, to unravel the causes of past glacial fluctuations, to understand the climatic signals driving present-day glacier fluctuations, and perhaps to predict the response of glaciers to future climate changes. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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