Invited by Prof. YAO Tandong, Dr. Lonnie G. Thompson, Distinguished Professor of the Ohio State University, USA, member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, and foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is visiting ITP on January 19, 2013. He will guest the 4th Tibetan Plateau Science Forum by sharing his latest insights in ice core paleoclimatology learnt from tropical alpine glaciers.

 Report title: Climate Reconstruction from Mountain Glaciers and Ice Cores

Presenter: Prof. Lonnie G. Thompson, winner of the 2012 International Science and Technology Cooperation Award, P. R. China

Host：Prof. YAO Tandong

Venue: Meeting Room 912, ITPCAS,

#3 Building, Lin Cui Lu 16 Hao Yuan, Beijing

Time: 3.00-4.00 pm, Saturday, January 19, 2013

Abstract:

　　Glaciers serve both as recorders as well as early indicators of climate change. Over the last 35 years our research team has recovered ice-core records of climatic and environmental variations from both the polar-regions and from low to mid-latitude, high-elevation ice fields. These ice core archives have provided records in the tropics covering the last 25,000 years allowing us to compare the glacial stage conditions in the tropics to those of the polar-regions. High-resolution ice core stratigraphic records of δ18O (in part a temperature proxy) for example demonstrate that the current warming at high elevations in the mid- to lower latitudes is unprecedented for at least the last two millennia, even though they suggest that the early Holocene was much warmer at many sites. The remarkable similarity between changes in the highland and coastal cultures of Peru and climate variability, especially with regard to precipitation, implies a strong connection between prehistoric human activities and climate in this region. Ice cores retrieved from shrinking glaciers around the world confirm their continuous existence for periods ranging from hundreds to thousands of years, suggesting that climatological conditions that dominate those regions today are different from those under which these ice fields originally grew and have been sustained. The current warming is therefore unusual when viewed from both the millennial-scale perspective provided by multiple lines of proxy evidence and the 160-year record of direct temperature measurements. The ongoing widespread melting of high-elevation glaciers and ice caps, particularly in low to middle latitudes, provides strong evidence that a large-scale, pervasive and, in some cases, rapid change in Earth’s climate system is underway. The history and fate of these ice caps, told through the adventure, beauty and the science from some of world’s most remote mountain tops, provide a global perspective of climate change by highlighting observations of 20th and 21st century glacier shrinkage in the Andes, the Himalayas, Kilimanjaro, Africa and glaciers near Puncak Jaya, Indonesia (New Guinea).The lecture will also look at what are likely important areas for future ice core and glaciological research.

Your participation and involvement in the discussion is expected and warmly welcome!