Solar modulation of Little Ice Age climate in the tropical Andes
- 13 June 2006
- journal article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Vol. 103 (24) , 8937-8942
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0603118103
Abstract
The underlying causes of late-Holocene climate variability in the tropics are incompletely understood. Here we report a 1,500-year reconstruction of climate history and glaciation in the Venezuelan Andes using lake sediments. Four glacial advances occurred between anno Domini (A.D.) 1250 and 1810, coincident with solar-activity minima. Temperature declines of -3.2 +/- 1.4 degrees C and precipitation increases of approximately 20% are required to produce the observed glacial responses. These results highlight the sensitivity of high-altitude tropical regions to relatively small changes in radiative forcing, implying even greater probable responses to future anthropogenic forcing.Keywords
This publication has 49 references indexed in Scilit:
- The calculation of lead-210 dates assuming a constant rate of supply of unsupported 210Pb to the sedimentPublished by Elsevier ,2005
- Projected temperature changes along the American cordillera and the planned GCOS networkGeophysical Research Letters, 2004
- Climate over past millenniaReviews of Geophysics, 2004
- Caribbean sea surface temperatures: Two‐to‐three degrees cooler than present during the Little Ice AgeGeophysical Research Letters, 2000
- Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitationsGeophysical Research Letters, 1999
- Modern and last local glacial maximum snowlines in the Central Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and Northern ChileQuaternary Science Reviews, 1999
- Precipitation in the Venezuelan Andes in the context of regional climateArchiv für Meteorologie, Geophysik und Bioklimatologie Serie A, 1998
- Relationships of inter‐american rainfall to tropical Atlantic and Pacific SST variabilityGeophysical Research Letters, 1996
- Biogenic Silica in Lake Baikal Sediments: Results From 1990–1992 American CoresJournal of Great Lakes Research, 1994
- The glaciers of the Sierra Nevada de Mérida (Venezuela): A photographic comparison of recent DeglaciationErdkunde, 1992