Analyzing Atmospheric Warming and Environmental Changes from High-Altitude Ice Cores

Ohio State University, The, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

Historical evidence indicates that climate has contributed to the rise and fall of civilizations. The evidence also suggests that early human activities, such as land-use changes and biomass degradation, may have impacted climate. While current scientific evidence indicates that human-emitted greenhouse gases are contributing to the increase in temperatures across the globe, insights into short-term regional changes are much more ambiguous. This research project will focus on the reciprocal influence between atmospheric warming and environmental changes in ecosystems and human society from the coldest time interval of the Holocene (a period known as "the Little Ice Age") to the current warm period. The project will provide new perspectives about the synergies between atmospheric pollution and climate change, especially at higher elevations where rapid glacial melting often occurs. The insights from this project will advance basic understanding about relationships between the impacts of human-induced atmospheric pollution on climate as well as factors that may lead to both the amplification of atmospheric warming and the suppression of atmospheric temperatures. Project results will help guide policy makers, governmental agencies, and resource administrators in assessing appropriate courses of action. This project also will strengthen international research collaborations among U.S. and European scientists and institutions. Four ice cores retrieved from the ice field atop Mt. Ortles, the highest mountain in South Tyrol, Italy, reveal records of at least four centuries of climatic and environmental history. These ice cores, which were extracted from one of the most rapidly warming and environmentally impacted areas in the world, offer a unique opportunity to investigate the interactions of strong regional environmental variations and wider-ranging global climatic patterns. Using isotopic analysis, trace elements ratios, mass spectrometry, and ion chromatography, the investigators will seek answers to three core questions: (1) Have temperatures increased at the high elevations over the past 400 years? (2) What is the relationship between larger levels of human-generated aerosols and increases in regional temperatures? (3) Do droughts and wet periods impact atmospheric particulate content? Project findings will provide new perspectives regarding the complex interactions among climate, human society, and ecosystems as well as their intricate linkages bound by the fluxes of mass and energy.