Observations of the δ18O in precipitation from four ice cores (Puruogangri, Dasuopu, Guliya and Dunde) from the Tibetan Plateau (TP) provide additional important perspectives on climatic warming during the 20th century in a region where there is a lack of instrumental and observational climate data. The average δ18O and surface air temperature over the TP show very similar fluctuations since 1955, which provides new evidence that the δ18O in the ice cores is at least in part a temperature signal. Nevertheless differences and similarities exist among the four records. Some climatic events, particularly the major cooling episodes, are synchronously recorded in Puruogangri and Dasuopu and in the Bange meteorological air-temperature record. The major features of the ice cores allow them to be classified into two groups, the northern TP group (Dunde and Guliya) and southern TP group (Puruogangri and Dasuopu). This classification is determined by the different processes driving climate change between the northern and southern regions of the TP. Moreover, the δ18O variability between the ice cores within each region further documents the smaller-scale regional variability.

The Patagonia icefields constitute a unique location in the Southern Hemisphere for obtaining non-polar paleo-records from ice cores south of 45°S. Nevertheless, no ice-core record with meaningful paleoclimate information has yet been obtained from Patagonia. This deficiency is due to extremely harsh field conditions, and to the fact that the main plateaus of both Hielo Patagónico Norte (HPN; northern Patagonia icefield) and Hielo Patagónico Sur (HPS; southern Patagonia icefield) are strongly affected by meltwater percolation. In order to explore the suitability of high-elevation glacier sites at HPS as paleoclimate archives, three shallow firn cores were retrieved covering the altitude range 1543−2300 ma.s.l. The glaciochemical records from the two lower sites confirm the presence of superimposed ice, a clear sign of meltwater formation and percolation. In the core from 2300 m, the glaciochemical signature appears to be preserved, indicating that no significant melting occurred. Although there might be problems associated with wind erosion and extreme melt events, there is good potential for well-preserved paleo-records within glaciers in the Patagonia icefields located higher than 2300 m.

In January 2003, shallow firn cores were recovered from Glaciar Esmeralda on Cerro del Plomo (33°14’S, 70°13’W; 5300 ma.s.l.), central Chile, and from Glaciar La Ollada on Cerro Mercedario (31°58’S, 70°07’W; 6070 ma.s.l.), Argentina, in order to find a suitable archive for paleoclimate reconstruction in a region strongly influenced by the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. In the area between 28°S and 35°S, the amount of winter precipitation is significantly correlated to the Southern Oscillation Index, with higher values during El Nino years. Glaciochemical analysis indicates that the paleo-record at Glaciar La Ollada is well preserved, whereas at Glaciar Esmeralda the record is strongly influenced by meltwater formation and percolation. A preliminary dating of the Mercedario core by annual-layer counting results in a time-span of 17 years (1986-2002), yielding an average annual net accumulation of 0.45 m w.e.

The coherent variations of annual snow accumulation rate and dust deposition over 60 years are recorded in an ice core drilled at 6530 ma.s.l. on the Chongce ice cap, located in the west Kunlun Shan, south of the Taklimakan desert in China. These records were investigated in the context both of the dust transport pathways from the source region and of climatic changes in this arid environment. The factors relating the dust transport from the source to sink area were taken into account to ascertain the integration of these factors on the precipitation-forming process at high elevations. Results indicate that: (1) dust is predominant among aerosols in precipitation at high altitude; (2) the dust aerosol population may be more instrumental than the vapor supply in the formation of precipitation at such altitudes; (3) compared to low-elevation glaciers, snow accumulation on high mountain glaciers seems to be more sensitive to changes in the concentration of air-burden dust particulates, which are closely related to the climatic variations around the desert region; and (4) under the current climate conditions surrounding the desert region, the decreasing trend in snow accumulation, in concert with the decrease in dust deposition that has occurred over the past several decades, might continue. This effect on snow accumulation at high altitudes may explain one of the elements potentially responsible for the longer-term glacial variation, i.e. the glacial retreat that has lasted for decades in central Asia.

In this paper, the ratio of dust layer thickness to ice thickness, i.e. the dust ratio, is used as a proxy for dust event frequency in the Malan ice core from the northern Tibetan Plateau. We reconstructed a ∼900 year record that reveals that the 1770s–1880s was a prolonged period of high dust ratios, which indicates that dust events occurred frequently from the late 18th century through the 19th century. Statistical analysis of the variations in the dust ratios and δ18O (which is a good proxy for air temperature) in the Malan ice core shows that there is a strong negative correlation between them. This suggests that dust events occur more frequently in cold periods than in warm periods.

An ice core from the Nevado Huascaran col in the Cordillera Blanca of northern Peru contains high-resolution time series of dust concentrations and size distributions since the end of the last glacial stage. A large dust peak, dated ∼4500 years ago, is contemporaneous with a widespread and prolonged drought that apparently extended from North Africa to eastern China, evidence of which occurs in historical, archeological and paleoclimatic records. This event may have been associated with several centuries of weak Asian/Indian/African monsoons, possibly linked with a protracted cooling in the North Atlantic. During the second half of the 20th century, high austral-summer dust concentrations in the Huascaran record are significantly correlated with atmospheric conditions, such as sea-level pressure and zonal wind velocities that are consistent with El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and positive North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) indices, and with aridity in North Africa, southwest Asia and the Middle East. Therefore, the dominant submicron fraction of the dust may have been transported by more intense northeasterly trade winds from the African dry regions across the tropical Atlantic during a period of frequent and/or intense ENSO activity. The proposed ENSO conditions that may have been linked with drought in the monsoon region may also have contributed to aridity in tropical South America, including the Cordillera Blanca.

A global collection of high temporally resolved ice-core-derived δ18O records is examined to assess whether the proxy records are consistent with contemporaneous observed temperature variations in their respective regions. This is prerequisite to using the older parts of the proxy (δ18O) records to assess whether 20th-century temperatures remain within the range of longer-term natural variability. Excluding the high plateaus in East and West Antarctica where 20th-century temperatures show modest cooling, the ice-core records from other regions suggest modest to strong 20th-century warming. The recent warming over Greenland has been modest and spatially variable. The 20th-century warming over both the Barents Sea region and the Tibetan Plateau now falls well outside the range of prior longer-term temperature variability. Similarly, over the South American Andes and the Antarctic Peninsula the recent warming exceeds the long-term mean for the last 1000 and 500 years, respectively. The ice fields in these regions are in danger of being compromised or lost if the present warming trend in these regions persists.

Several firn/ice cores were recovered from the Siberian Altai (Belukha plateau), central Tien Shan (Inilchek glacier) and the Tibetan Plateau (Zuoqiupu glacier, Bomi) from 1998 to 2003. The comparison analyses of stable-isotope/geochemistry records obtained from these firn/ice cores identified the physical links controlling the climate-related signals at the seasonal-scale variability. The core data related to physical stratigraphy, meteorology and synoptic atmospheric dynamics were the basis for calibration, validation and clustering of the relationships between the firn-/ice-core isotope/ geochemistry and snow accumulation, air temperature and precipitation origin. The mean annual accumulation (in water equivalent) was 106 gcm−2 a−1 at Inilchek glacier, 69 gcm−2 a−1 at Belukha and 196 g cm−2 a−1 at Zuoqiupu. The slopes in regression lines between the δ18O ice-core records and air temperature were found to be positive for the Tien Shan and Altai glaciers and negative for southeastern Tibet, where heavy amounts of isotopically depleted precipitation occur during summer monsoons. The technique of coupling synoptic climatology and meteorological data with δ18O and d-excess in firn-core records was developed to determine climate-related signals and to identify the origin of moisture. In Altai, two-thirds of accumulation from 1984 to 2001 was formed from oceanic precipitation, and the rest of the precipitation was recycled over Aral–Caspian sources. In the Tien Shan, 87% of snow accumulation forms by precipitation originating from the Aral–Caspian closed basin, the eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas, and 13% from the North Atlantic.

Two ice cores (118.4 and 214.7 m in length) were collected in 2000 from the Puruogangri ice cap in the center of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) in a joint US-Chinese collaborative project. These cores yield paleoclimatic and environmental records extending through the Middle Holocene, and complement previous ice-core histories from the Dunde and Guliya ice caps in northeast and northwest Tibet, respectively, and Dasuopu glacier in the Himalaya. The high-resolution Puruogangri climate record since AD 1600 details regional temperature and moisture variability. The post-1920 period is characterized by above-average annual net balance, contemporaneous with the greatest 18O enrichment of the last 400 years, consistent with the isotopically inferred warming observed in other TP ice-core records. On longer timescales the aerosol history reveals large and abrupt events, one of which is dated ∼4.7 kyr BP and occurs close to the time of a drought that extended throughout the tropics and may have been associated with centuries-long weakening of the Asian/Indian/African monsoon system. The Puruogangri climate history, combined with the other TP ice-core records, has the potential to provide valuable information on variations in the strength of the monsoon across the TP during the Holocene.

We examined microorganisms and pollen in a pit (4.5m deep) and a shallow ice core (25.01m long) from Sofiyskiy glacier in the Altai mountains of Russia for potential use in dating ice cores from a mid-latitude glacier. The ice-core and pit samples contained various green algae, cyanobacteria, bacteria, fungi and pollen. In the vertical profiles of the pit, algal biomass peaks corresponded to high δ18O layers and Pinaceae pollen peaks, suggesting that these algae grew during the melt season. In contrast, the layer with the lowest δ18O contained almost no algal cells. Major peaks of the cyanobacteria, bacteria and a fungus roughly corresponded to those of the algae. However, seasonal changes in these microorganisms became indistinct deeper in the core, as did the seasonal variation in δ18O and major ions, most likely due to heavy meltwater percolation and/or post-depositional decomposition. In contrast, clear seasonal cycles were evident in the algal biomass and pollen in snow samples. Assuming that the peaks of the snow algae and Pinaceae pollen marked summer layers and that the layers with almost no snow algae represented the winter layers, we estimated that the ice core contained 16 annual layers (1985–2001). The mean annual mass balance for the period was estimated to be 1.01mw.e. The value agreed well with those estimated from stake measurements, indicating that snow algae and pollen could provide reliable boundary markers of annual layers in the ice cores of this region.

Glaciers in the Muztag Ata and Konggur mountains of the eastern Pamir plateau, northwestern China, have been monitored by applying aerial photo stereo models (1962/66) and Landsat TM (1990) and ETM+ (1999) images, all of which have been compared in order to detect areal and frontal changes through the past four decades. The mean frontal retreat of glaciers in the Muztag Ata and Konggur mountains increased from 6.0 ma−1 between 1962/66 and 1990 to 11.2ma−1 between 1990 and 1999, with an overall glacier length reduction of 9.9% for the whole study period. The glacier area has decreased by 7.9%, mainly due to changes observed in the most recent period (1990–99), when the annual area loss almost tripled to 1.01 km2 a−1. Based on meteorological data from Taxkogan station since 1957, we conclude that climate change, particularly the rise in summer temperature after 1994, is the main forcing factor in glacier shrinkage.

The ecological environment of the headwater area of the Yellow River, west China, is seriously deteriorating because of the harsh natural environment, weakened ecological systems and intensified human activities as well as regional climate changes. Forests and glaciers coexist in this area. Glaciers in the area have retreated over the last decade because of climate change. Most glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) tend to retreat during warm intervals and advance during cold intervals. Tree-ring records provide an important index for examining past climate changes. A total of 139 core samples from 97 living cypresses (Juniperus przewalskii) in the central region of the Yellow River headwater area, the Animaqin mountains, northeastern TP, were sampled from three sites that are close to each other. The chronologies were developed using the ARSTAN program. Analyses indicate that these tree-ring width records reflect the summer maximum temperature of the study area over the past 700 years. The tree-ring records and the glacier advances recorded by terminal moraines are compared. Inferred summer maximum temperatures suggest three cold periods during the Little Ice Age, around AD1500, 1700 and 1850. These cold intervals are consistent with the glacier moraine record from the region.

The Tarim river basin, a river system formed by the convergence of nine tributaries, is the most heavily glacierized watershed in arid northwest China. In the basin, there are 11 665 glaciers with a total area of 19 878 km2 and a volume of 2313 km3. Glaciers in the basin play a significant role in the water resource system. It is estimated that they provide about 133 x 108 m3 of meltwater annually, contributing 39% of the total river runoff. Under the influence of global warming, northwest China has experienced a generally warmer and drier climate since the mid-19th century. However, a so-called ‘warm and wet transition’ has occurred since the late 1980s, evidenced by an increase in both precipitation and stream discharge in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region and neighboring regions. This paper describes how glaciers in the Tarim river basin have responded to such warming and increased precipitation, and the impact of these glacier changes. We analyzed the variations of more than 3000 glaciers since the 1960s using topographical maps, high-resolution satellite images and aerial photographs of the river basin. Our results indicate that glaciers in the basin have been mostly in retreat in the past 40 years, and ice wastage has significantly influenced water resources in the Tarim river basin. Estimation by a degree-day meltwater model shows the positive anomaly in stream runoff of the Tailan river can be partly attributed to the increase in glacier runoff (amounting to one-third of the stream discharge), and a rough estimation using observed average ablation on the termini of 15 glaciers in China verifies that the mass loss calculated by a glacier area-volume relation is reasonable.

Glaciers in China are primarily located in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and surrounding high mountains. The Chinese Glacier Inventory indicates that there are 46 377 glaciers in western China. Meteorological records indicate that air temperature in western China has risen by 0.2˚C per decade since 1951, and 1998 was the warmest year; precipitation in the region increased by 5–10% per decade from 1953 to 1997. Using remote-sensing and Geographic Information System methods, we have monitored the changes in >5000 glaciers over the past 50 years. We conclude that >80% of glaciers in western China have retreated, losing 4.5% of their combined areal coverage, although some glaciers have advanced. In addition, regional differences characterize glacier changes over the past few decades. For example, glaciers in the central and northwestern TP were relatively stable, while glaciers in the mountains surrounding the TP experienced extensive wastage. Mass-balance variations for some glaciers show accelerated ice shrinkage in the last two decades.

In contrast to the worldwide intensive warming and consequent glacier shrinkage during the last 30 years, two peculiar phenomena have been observed on the Tibetan Plateau: (1) the temperature has decreased about 0.6˚C on the northern Tibetan Plateau, with smaller than average glacier retreat and meltwater discharge, and (2) a number of glaciers have been advancing on the southeast Tibetan Plateau in response to increased precipitation. These observations indicate the complex nature of the response of glaciers to climate changes.

Most of the glaciers in southern Chile have been retreating and shrinking during recent decades in response to atmospheric warming and decrease in precipitation. However, some glacier fluctuations are directly associated with the effusive and geothermal activity of ice-covered active volcanoes widely distributed in the region. The aim of this paper is to study the ice volumetric changes by comparing several topographic datasets. A maximum mean ice thinning rate of 0.81 ± 0.45 m a−1 was observed on the ash/debris-covered ablation area of Volcan Villarrica between 1961 and 2004, whilst on Volcan Mocho the signal-to-noise ratio was too small to yield any conclusion. An area reduction of 0.036 ±0.019 km2 a−1 since 1976 was obtained on Glaciar Mocho, while on Volcan Villarrica the area change was −0.090 ± 0.034 km2 a−1 between 1976 and 2005. Glaciers on active volcanoes are therefore shrinking, mainly in response to climatic driving factors. However, volcanic activity is affecting glaciers in two opposite ways: ash/debris advection is helping to reduce surface ablation at lower reaches by insulating the ice from solar radiation, while geothermal activity is probably enhancing melting and water production at the bedrock, resulting in negative ice-elevation changes.

Baltoro glacier in the Karakoram, Pakistan, is one of the world’s largest valley glaciers. It drains an area of about 1500 km2 and is >60km long. In 2004 an Italian/German expedition carried out a glaciological field program on the ablation zone of the glacier, focusing on the ablation conditions and the dynamic state of the glacier. As Baltoro glacier is a debris-covered glacier, ice ablation also depends on the debris properties. Stake measurements of ice ablation and debris cover in combination with meteorological data from automatic weather stations close by have been used to determine the local melt conditions. Results from these calculations have been combined with an analysis of different classes of surface cover and information about precipitation, using remote-sensing techniques, in order to calculate mass fluxes for the upper part of Baltoro glacier. The dynamic state of the glacier has been investigated by GPS-based surface velocity measurements along the stake network. A comparison of these short-term measurements during the melt season with surface velocities computed from feature tracking of satellite images shows a high seasonal variability of the ice motion. We have shown that this variability is up to 100% of the annual mean velocity. On the basis of these investigations, the mass fluxes at the Concordia cross-section have been quantified. This approach can now be used together with the ablation calculations to reconstruct the variability of glacier extent and volume in the past using available climate data from the central Karakoram. From the comparison of historical measurements and photographs it is shown that the snout of Baltoro glacier is oscillating back and forth a couple of hundred metres. Otherwise it seems not to react with the same magnitude as other glaciers to the climatic change. Elevation changes at Concordia are a few tens of metres at the most.

Ice cores contribute important records of past climate changes. As one of the thickest ice caps in central Asia, the Guliya ice cap (35°17′ N, 81°29′ E) provides valuable information for this critical region about the past climate and environment changes. We used wavelet analysis to examine periodic temperature and precipitation oscillations over the past 1700 years recorded in the Guliya ice core. The results show non-linear oscillations in the ice-core records, with multiple timescales. Temperature records indicate persistent oscillations with periodicities of approximately 200, 150 and 70 years. Precipitation records show significant periodicities at 200, 100, 150 and 60 years. However, the amplitude modulation and frequency vary with time. Wavelet analysis can explore these time series in greater detail and furnish additional useful information.

The Guliya ice cap, on the crest of the Kunlun Shan, central Asia, is an ideal site for acquiring ice cores for climate-change studies. Detailed analyses of the precipitation index (glacier accumulation) and the temperature proxy (δ18O) recorded in the Guliya ice core since 300 years BP show that precipitation correlates with temperature in this region. Climate conditions in the Guliya region since 300 years BP can be separated into three periods: warm and wet from AD 1690 to the end of the 18th century; cold and dry from the 19th century to the 1930s; and warm and wet again since the 1940s. During this period, the climate exhibits just two phases: warm/wet and cold/dry. Comparison of the temperatures and the precipitation recorded in the Guliya ice core shows that variations of temperature and precipitation in the region correlate quite well. However, changes in the precipitation regime appear to lag behind those of the temperature by 20–40 years. We believe this results from the larger heat capacity of the ocean relative to that of the land. Hence, ocean temperatures and corresponding evaporation rates change more slowly than do continental conditions. Additionally, however, positive feedback processes, such as increasing temperatures and precipitation improving vegetation, moisture retention and, hence, local convective precipitation probably play an important role. In this paper, we explain how the timescale of evolving vegetation and the feedback mechanism between precipitation and the temperature could help explain why the changes in precipitation lag those of temperature by 20–40 years over long periods. Taking this time lag into account, we should be able to predict future precipitation trends, based on observed temperature trends.