Reconstructing glacier-based climates of LGM Europe and Russia – Part 2: A dataset of LGM precipitation/temperature relations derived from degree-day modelling of palaeo glaciers

摘要

The study of European and Russian Quaternary glacial-geological evidenceduring the last 15 years has generated sufficient data to use former glacialextent as a proxy for Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) climate (precipitation andtemperature) at a continental scale. Utilisation of such data is relevantfor two reasons. First, continental to global scale proxy reconstructions ofpast climate are an important tool in the assessment of retrospectivegeneral circulation model (GCM) simulations. Second, the development of amulti-proxy approach will result in a more robust proxy based climatesignal. A new and independent dataset of 36 LGM precipitation andtemperature relationships derived from European and Russian mountain regionsis presented in this paper. A simple glacier-climate model was used toestablish the optimum LGM precipitation/temperature conditions for eachregion from a suite of over 4000 model climates using the principle of zerocumulative mass balance. Clear regional trends are present in thereconstructed LGM precipitation and temperature curves; assuming presentprecipitation temperature anomalies north of the Alps are 2°C and 5°Clarger than those in the western and eastern Mediterranean, respectively.In Russia the model results suggest that the climates in both the ArcticUrals and Puterana Plateau were probably conducive to the existence of smallmountain glaciers at the LGM.