Impact of climate change on Andean glaciers in sync with polar ice
Glaciers in tropical mountains are experiencing the same impact of climate change drivers as those in the polar regions of Antarctica and the Northern Hemisphere, according to a study published today in Nature. The paper by an international team of scientists, including Robert Hatfield, assistant professor in the University of Florida’s Department of Geological Sciences, is the first to show that the effects of greenhouse gases and other drivers of Earth’s temperature are impacting glaciers in the South. Hemisphere at the same speed as the northern ice sheet. To derive their findings, the researchers used sediment deposits from Lake JunÃn, high in the Peruvian Andes, to create a record of glacial changes that stretch back 700,000 years. Hatfield explains that much of what scientists know about past glacial changes comes from records of ice growth and decay occurring in the Northern Hemisphere. “As we try to understand how climate works around the world, we need more than a record of