Articles | Volume 21, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5615-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5615-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
13 Apr 2021
Research article |
| 13 Apr 2021
| 13 Apr 2021
Drought-induced biomass burning as a source of black carbon to the central Himalaya since 1781 CE as reconstructed from the Dasuopu ice core
Joel D. Barker
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Susan Kaspari
Department of Geological Sciences, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA 98926, USA
Paolo Gabrielli
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Anna Wegner
School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Emilie Beaudon
School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
M. Roxana Sierra-Hernández
School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Lonnie Thompson
Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
School of Earth Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
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Tiziana Lazzarina Zendrini, Luca Carturan, Michael Lehning, Mathias Bavay, Federico Cazorzi, Paolo Gabrielli, Nander Wever, and Giancarlo Dalla Fontana
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5186, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5186, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for The Cryosphere (TC).
Short summary
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By combining in situ mass balance data with a physics‐based snow model at Mt. Ortles, in the Italian Alps, we investigate snow accumulation, erosion and melt processes, and their sensitivity to air temperature. We found that wind erosion is currently the major ablation process at this high-elevation site, whereas melt plays a minor role. Quickly rising air temperature is affecting this partitioning and suggests a future shift from an erosion-dominated to a melt-dominated mass balance regime.
Sibylle Boxho, Aubry Vanderstraeten, Nadine Mattielli, Goulven G. Laruelle, Aloys Bory, Paolo Gabrielli, and Steeve Bonneville
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5046, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5046, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Climate of the Past (CP).
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We present the first high-resolution, quantitative reconstruction of dust provenance in the EPICA Dome C ice core (33.7–2.9 ka BP) using rare earth elements. Dust was mainly sourced from Patagonia during glacial periods, shifting toward Australia, southern Africa, and the Puna-Altiplano after 14.5 ka BP due to sea-level rise and hydrological rearrangement in Patagonia. These changes also reflect major reorganizations of Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation.
Luca Carturan, Alexander C. Ihle, Federico Cazorzi, Tiziana Lazzarina Zendrini, Fabrizio De Blasi, Giancarlo Dalla Fontana, Giuliano Dreossi, Daniela Festi, Bryan Mark, Klaus Dieter Oeggl, Roberto Seppi, Barbara Stenni, and Paolo Gabrielli
The Cryosphere, 19, 3443–3458, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-3443-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-3443-2025, 2025
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Paleoclimatic glacial archives in low-latitude mountains are increasingly affected by melt, causing heavy percolation and removing snow and firn accumulated across months, seasons, or even years. Here we present a proxy system model that explicitly accounts for melt in ice and firn cores. Compared to traditional annual layer counting, the model significantly improved the interpretation and annual dating of the Mt Ortles firn core, in the Italian Alps, which includes the very warm summer of 2003.
Paolo Gabrielli, Theo M. Jenk, Michele Bertó, Giuliano Dreossi, Daniela Festi, Werner Kofler, Mai Winstrup, Klaus Oeggl, Margit Schwikowski, Barbara Stenni, and Carlo Barbante
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2174, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-2174, 2025
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A low latitude-high altitude Alpine ice core record was obtained in 2011 from the glacier Alto dell’Ortles (Eastern Alps, Italy) and provided evidence of one of the oldest Alpine ice core records spanning the last ~7000 years, back to the last Northern Hemisphere Climatic Optimum. Here we provide a new Alto dell’Ortles chronology of improved accuracy that will allow to constrain Holocene climatic and environmental histories emerging from this high-altitude glacial archive of Central Europe.
Kara A. Lamantia, Laura J. Larocca, Lonnie G. Thompson, and Bryan G. Mark
The Cryosphere, 18, 4633–4644, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4633-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-18-4633-2024, 2024
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Glaciers that exist within tropical regions are vital water resources and excellent indicators of a changing climate. We use satellite imagery analysis to detect the boundary between snow and ice on the Quelccaya Ice Cap (QIC), Peru, which indicates the ice cap's overall health. These results are analyzed with other variables, such as temperature, precipitation, and sea surface temperature anomalies, to better understand the factors and timelines driving the ice retreat.
Luca Carturan, Fabrizio De Blasi, Roberto Dinale, Gianfranco Dragà, Paolo Gabrielli, Volkmar Mair, Roberto Seppi, David Tonidandel, Thomas Zanoner, Tiziana Lazzarina Zendrini, and Giancarlo Dalla Fontana
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 4661–4688, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4661-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4661-2023, 2023
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This paper presents a new dataset of air, englacial, soil surface and rock wall temperatures collected between 2010 and 2016 on Mt Ortles, which is the highest summit of South Tyrol, Italy. Details are provided on instrument type and characteristics, field methods, and data quality control and assessment. The obtained data series are available through an open data repository. This is a rare dataset from a summit area lacking observations on permafrost and glaciers and their climatic response.
Tobias Erhardt, Matthias Bigler, Urs Federer, Gideon Gfeller, Daiana Leuenberger, Olivia Stowasser, Regine Röthlisberger, Simon Schüpbach, Urs Ruth, Birthe Twarloh, Anna Wegner, Kumiko Goto-Azuma, Takayuki Kuramoto, Helle A. Kjær, Paul T. Vallelonga, Marie-Louise Siggaard-Andersen, Margareta E. Hansson, Ailsa K. Benton, Louise G. Fleet, Rob Mulvaney, Elizabeth R. Thomas, Nerilie Abram, Thomas F. Stocker, and Hubertus Fischer
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1215–1231, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1215-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1215-2022, 2022
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The datasets presented alongside this manuscript contain high-resolution concentration measurements of chemical impurities in deep ice cores, NGRIP and NEEM, from the Greenland ice sheet. The impurities originate from the deposition of aerosols to the surface of the ice sheet and are influenced by source, transport and deposition processes. Together, these records contain detailed, multi-parameter records of past climate variability over the last glacial period.
Paolo Gabrielli, Theo Manuel Jenk, Michele Bertó, Giuliano Dreossi, Daniela Festi, Werner Kofler, Mai Winstrup, Klaus Oeggl, Margit Schwikowski, Barbara Stenni, and Carlo Barbante
Clim. Past Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2022-20, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2022-20, 2022
Revised manuscript not accepted
Short summary
Short summary
We present a methodology that reduces the chronological uncertainty of an Alpine ice core record from the glacier Alto dell’Ortles, Italy. This chronology will allow the constraint of the Holocene climatic and environmental histories emerging from this archive of Central Europe. This method will allow to obtain accurate chronologies also from other ice cores from-low latitude/high-altitude glaciers that typically suffer from larger dating uncertainties compared with well dated polar records.
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Short summary
Black carbon (BC), an aerosol that contributes to glacier melt, is important for central Himalayan hydrology because glaciers are a water source to rivers that affect 25 % of the global population in Southeast Asia. Using the Dasuopu ice core (1781–1992 CE), we find that drought-associated biomass burning is an important source of BC to the central Himalaya over a period of months to years and that hemispheric changes in atmospheric circulation influence BC deposition over longer periods.
Black carbon (BC), an aerosol that contributes to glacier melt, is important for central...
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