Abstract
This paper provides an overview of climatic changes that have been observed during the past century at certain high-elevation sites, and changes in a more distant past documented by a variety of climate-sensitive environmental indicators, such as tree-rings and alpine glaciers, that serve as a measure of the natural variability of climate in mountains over longer time scales. Detailed studies such as those found in this special issue of Climatic Change , as well as those noted in this review, for the mountain regions of the world, advance our understanding in a variety of ways. They are not only helpful to characterize present and past climatological features in the mountainous zones, but they also provide useful information to the climate modeling community. Because of the expected refinements in the physical parameterizations of climate models in coming years, and the probable increase in the spatial resolution of GCMs, the use of appropriate data from high elevation sites will become of increasing importance for model initialization, verification, and intercomparison purposes. The necessity of accurate projections of climate change is paramount to assessing the likely impacts of climate change on mountain biodiversity, hydrology and cryosphere, and on the numerous economic activities which take place in these regions.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angell, J. K.: 1988, ‘Variations and Trends in Tropospheric and Stratospheric Global Temperatures, 1958–87’, J. Clim. 1, 1296–1313.
Auer, I. and Boehm, R.: 1994, ‘Combined Temperature-Precipitation Variations in Austria during the Instrumental Record’, Theor. Appl. Clim. 49, 161–174.
Barry, R. G.: 1994, ‘Past and Potential Future Changes in Mountain Environments’, in Beniston, M. (ed.), Mountain Environments in Changing Climates, Routledge Publishing Company, London and New York, pp. 3–33.
Baumgartner, T. R., Michaelsen, J., Thompson, L. G., Shen, G. T., Soutar, A., and Casey, R. E.: 1989, ‘The Recording of Inter-Annual Climatic Change by High Resolution Natural Systems: Tree-Rings, Coral Bands, Glacial Ice Layers and Marine Varves’, in Peterson, D. (ed.), Climatic Change in the Eastern Pacific and Western Americas, American Geophysical Union, Washington, D.C., pp. 1–14.
Beniston, M. (ed.): 1994, Mountain Environments in Changing Climates, Routledge Publishing Co., London and New York, p. 492.
Beniston, M., Fox, D. G., Adhikary, S., Andressen, R., Guisan, A., Holten, J., Innes, J., Maitima, J., Price, M., and Tessier, L.: 1996, The Impacts of Climate Change on Mountain Regions, Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Chapter 5, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 191–213.
Beniston, M. and Rebetez, M.: 1996, ‘Regional Behavior of Minimum Temperatures in Switzerland for the Period 1979–1993’, Theor. Appl. Clim. 53, 231–243.
Beniston, M. and Rebetez, M.: 1997, ‘Shifts in Extremes in Relation to Changes in Mean Climate. Investigations of Observed and Simulated Climatological Data in the Swiss Alpine Region’, J. Clim., submitted.
Beniston, M., Ohmura, A., Rotach, M., Tschuck, P., Wild, M., and Marinucci, M. R.: 1995, Simulation of Climate Trends over the Alpine Region: Development of a Physically-Based Modeling System for Application to Regional Studies of Current and Future Climate, Final Scientific Report Nr. 4031-33250 to the Swiss Nat ional Science Foundation, Bern, Switzerland.
Beniston, M., Ohmura, A., Wild, M., Tschuck, P., and Rotach, M.: 1996, Feedbacks between Mountains and Climate, Final Scientific Report Nr. 5001-035179 to the Swiss National Science Foundation, Bern, Switzerland.
Beniston, M., Rebetez, M., Giorgi, F., and Marinucci, M. R.: 1994, ‘An Analysis of Regional Climate Change in Switzerland’, Theor. Appl. Clim. 49, 135–159.
Bolin, B.: 1950, ‘On the Influence of the Earth's Orography on the General Character of the Westerlies’, Tellus 2, 184–195.
Broccoli, A. J. and Manabe, S.: 1992, ‘The Effect of Orography on Midlatitude Northern Hemisphere Dry Climates’, J. Clim. 5, 1181–1201.
Brown, T. B., Barry, R. G., and Doesken, N. J.: 1992, An Exploratory Study of Temperature Trends for Colorado Paired Mountain-High Plains Stations, Preprints, Amer. Met. Soc. Sixth Conference on Mountain Meteorology, Portland, OR, September 29–October 2, 1992, pp. 181–184.
Burga, C. A.: 1993, ‘Pollen Analytical Evidence of Holocene Climate Fluctuations in the European Central Alps’, in Frenzel, B. (ed.), Oscillations of the Alpine and Polar Tree Limits in the Holocene, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 163–174.
CLIMAP Project Members: 1981, Seasonal Reconstructions of the Earth's Surface at the Last Glacial Maximum, Geological Society of America, Map Chart Series, MC-36.
Dessens, J. and Bücher, A.: 1995, ‘Changes in Minimum and Maximum Temperatures at the Pic du Midi in Relation with Humidity and Cloudiness, 1882–1984’, Atmos. Res. 37, 147–162.
Diaz, H. F. and Graham, N. E.: 1996, ‘Recent Changes in Tropical Freezing Heights and the Role of Sea-Surface Temperature’, Nature 383, 152–155.
Diaz, H. F. and Bradley, R. S.: 1997, ‘Temperature Variations during the Last Century at High Elevation Sites’, Clim. Change (this issue).
Geiger, R.: 1965, The Climate Near the Ground, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, p. 277.
Giorgi, F. and Mearns, L. O.: 1991, ‘Approaches to the Simulation of Regional Climate Change’, Rev. Geophys. 29, 191–216.
Giorgi, F., Hurrell, J., Marinucci, M., and Beniston, M.: 1996, ‘Height Dependency of the North Atlantic Oscillation Index. Observational and Model Studies’, J. Clim., accepted.
Graybill, D. A. and Shiyatov, S. G.: 1992, ‘Dendroclimatic Evidence from the Northern Soviet Union’, in Bradley, R. S. and Jones, P. D. (eds.), Climate Since A.D. 1500, Routledge, London, pp. 393–414.
Grove, J. M.: 1986, The Little Ice Age, Methuen, London, p. 498.
Hastenrath, S. and Kruss, P. D.: 1992, ‘The Dramatic Retreat of Mount Kenya's Glaciers 1963–87: Greenhouse Forcing’, Ann. Glaciol. 16, 127–133.
Held, I. M.: 1983, ‘Stationary and Quasi-Stationary Eddies in the Extratropical Atmosphere: Theory’, in Hoskins, B. and Pearce, R. B. (eds.), Large-Scale Dynamical Processes in the Atmosphere, Academic Press, New York, pp. 127–168.
Hurrell, J. W.: 1995, ‘Decadal Trends in the North Atlantic Oscillation Regional Temperatures and Precipitation’, Science 269, 676–679.
Hurrell, J. W. and van Loon, H.: 1997, ‘Decadal Variations in Climate Associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation. Climatic Change’, Clim. Change (this issue).
IPCC: 1996, Watson, R. T., Zinyowera, M., and Moss, R. H. (eds.), Climate Change 1995, The IPCC Second Assessment Report, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, p. 862.
Jacqmin, D. and Lindzen, R. S.: 1985, ‘The Causation and Sensitivity of the Northern Winter Planetary Waves’, J. Atmos. Sci. 42, 724–745.
Jones, P. D. and Wigley, T. M. L.: 1990, ‘Global Warming Trends’, Sci. Amer. 263, 84–91.
Karl, T. R., Jones, P. D., Knight, R. W., Kukla, G., Plummer, N., Razuvayev, V., Gallo, K. P., Lindseay, J., Charlson, R. J., and Peterson, T. C.: 1993, ‘Asymmetric Trends of Daily Maximum and Minimum Temperature’, Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 74, 1007–1023.
Karlén, W.: 1976, ‘Lacustrine Sediments and Tree-Limit Variations as Indicators of Holocene Climatic Fluctuations in Lappland, Northern Sweden’, Geografiska Annaler 58A, 1–34.
Karlén, W.: 1981, ‘Lacustrine Sediment Studies’, Geografiska Annaler 63A, 273–281.
Karlén, W.: 1993, ‘Glaciological, Sedimentological and Palaeobotanical Data Indicating Holocene Climatic Change in Northern Fennoscandia’, in Frenzel, B., Eronen, M., Vorren, K-D., and Gläser, B. (eds.), Oscillations of the Alpine and Polar Tree Limits in the Holocene, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 69–83.
Katz, R. W. and Brown, B. G.: 1992, ‘Extreme Events in a Changing Climate: Variability is More Important than Averages’, Clim. Change 21, 289–302.
Keigwin, L. D.: 1996, ‘The Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period in the Sargasso Sea’, Science 274, 1504–1508.
Klötzli, F.: 1984, Neuere Erkenntnisse zur Buchengrenze in Mitteleuropa, Fukarek, Akad. Nauka um jetn. bosne Herc., rad. 72, Odj. Prir. Mat. Nauka 21, P. Festschr. (ed.), Sarajevo, pp. 381–395.
Klötzli, F.: 1991, ‘Altitudinal Controls on Alpine Vegetation’, in Esser, G. and Overdiek, D. (eds.), Longevity and Stress, Modern Ecology: Basic and Applied Aspects, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 97–110.
Klötzli, F.: 1994, ‘Vegetation als Spielball naturgegebener Bauherren’, Phytocoenologia 24, 667–675.
Kullman, L.: 1989, ‘Tree-Limit History during the Holocene in the Scandes Mountains, Sweden, Inferred from Subfossil Wood’, Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol. 58, 163–171.
Kullman, L.: 1993, ‘Dynamism of the Altitudinal Margin of the Boreal Forest in Sweden’, in Frenzel, B., Eronen, M., Vorren, K-D., and Gläser, B. (eds.), Oscillations of the Alpine and Polar Tree Limits in the Holocene, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 41–55.
Kutzbach, J. E.: 1967, ‘Empirical Eigenvectors of Sea-Level Pressure, Surface Temperature and Precipitation Complexes over North America’, J. Appl. Met. 133, 791–802.
Kvamme, M.: 1993, ‘Holocene Forest Limit Fluctuations and Glacier Development in the Mountains of Southern Norway, and Their Relevance to Climate History’, in Frenzel, B., Eronen, M., Vorren, K-D., and Gläser, B. (eds.), Oscillations of the Alpine and Polar Tree Limits in the Holocene, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 99–113.
Leonard, E.: 1986, ‘Use of Lacustrine Sedimentary Sequences as Indicators of Holocene Glacier History’, Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada, Quatern. Res. 26, 218–231.
Magny, M.: 1995, ‘Successive Oceanic and Solar Forcing Indicated by Younger Dryas and Early Holocene Climatic Oscillations in the Jura’, Quatern. Res. 43, 279–285.
Manabe, S. and Terpstra, T. B.: 1974, ‘The Effects of Mountains on the General Circulation of the Atmosphere as Identified by Numerical Experiments’, J. Atmos. Sci. 31, 3–42.
Marinucci, M. R., Giorgi, F., Beniston, M., Wild, M., Tschuck, P., and Bernasconi, A.: 1995, ‘High Resolution Simulations of January and July Climate over the Western Alpine Region with a Nested Regional Modeling System, Theor. Appl. Clim. 51, 119–138.
Matthews, J.: 1991, ‘The Late Neoglacial (“Little Ice Age”) Glacier Maximum in Southern Norway: New 14C Dating Evidence and Climatic Implications’, The Holocene 1, 219–233.
Matthews, J.: 1993, ‘Deposits Indicative of Holocene Climatic Fluctuations in the Timberline Areas of Northern Europe: Some Physical Proxy Data Sources and Research Approaches’, in Frenzel, B., Eronen, M., Vorren, K-D., and Gläser, B. (eds.), Oscillations of the Alpine and Polar Tree Limits in the Holocene, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 85–97.
Michaelson, J. and Thompson, L. G.: 1992, ‘A Comparison of Proxy Records of El Niño/Southern Oscillation’, in Diaz, H. F. and Markgraf, V. (eds.), El Niño, Historical and Paleoecological Aspects of the Southern Oscillation, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 323–348.
Miller, A. J., Cayan, D. R., Barnett, T. P., Graham, N. E., and Oberhuber, J. M.: 1994, ‘Interdecadal Variability of the Pacific Ocean: Model Response to Observed Heat Flux and Wind Stress Anomalies’, Clim. Dyn. 9, 287–301.
Morrissey, M. L. and Graham, N. E.: 1996, ‘Recent Trends in Rain Gauge Precipitation Measurements from the Tropical Pacific: Evidence for an Enhanced Hydrologic Cycle’, Bull. Amer. Met. Soc. 77, 1207–1219.
Nesje, A. and Johannessen, T.: 1992, ‘What Were the Primary Forcing Mechanisms of High-Frequency Holocene Climate and Glacier Variations?’ The Holocene 2, 79–84.
Nesje, A., Kvamme, M., Rye, N., and Løvlie, R.: 1991, ‘Holocene Glacier and Climate History of the Jostedalsbreen Region, Western Norway: Evidence from Lake Sediments and Terrestrial Deposits’, Quatern. Sci. Rev. 10, 87–114.
Nesje, A., Dahl, S. O., Løvlie, R., and Sulebak, J. R.: 1994, ‘Holocene Glacier Activity at the Southwestern Part of Hardangerjøkulen, Central-South Norway: Evidence from Lacustrine Sediments’, The Holocene 4, 377–382.
Nigam, S., Held, I. M., and Lyons, S. W.: 1988, ‘Linear Simulations of the Stationary Eddies in a GCM. Part II: The Mountain Model’, J. Atmos. Sci. 45, 1433–1452.
Oerlemans, J.: 1994, ‘Quantifying Global Warming from the Retreat of Glaciers’, Science 264, 243–245.
Oort, A. H. and Liu, H.: 1993, ‘Upper-Air Temperature Trends over the Globe, 1958–1989’, J. Clim. 6, 292–307.
Ozenda, P.: 1985, La Végétation de la Chaine Alpine dans l'Espace Montagnard Européen, Masson, Paris, p. 344.
Porter S. C.: 1986, ‘Pattern and Forcing of Northern Hemisphere Glacier Variations during the Last Millennium, Quatern. Res. 26, 27–48.
Quezel, P. and Barbero, M.: 1990, ‘Les forêts méditerranéennes: problèmes posés par leur signification historique, écologique et leur conservation’, Acta Botanica Malacitana 15, 145–178.
Rameau, J. C., Mansion, D., Dumé, G., Lecointe, A., Timbal, J., Dupont, P., and Keller, R.: 1993, Flore Forestière Française, Guide Ecologique Illustré, Lavoisier TEC and DOC Diffusion, Paris, p. 2419.
Rind, D. and Overpeck, J.: 1993, ‘Hypothesized Causes of Decadal-to-Century Climate Variability: Climate Model Results’, Quatern. Sci. Rev. 12, 357–374.
Rochefort, R. R., Little, R. L., Woodward, A., and Peterson, D. L.: 1994, ‘Changes in Sub-Alpine Tree Distribution in Western North America: A Review of Climatic and Other Causal Factors’, The Holocene 4, 89–100.
Schaer, C., Frei, C., Lüthi, C., and Davies, H. C.: 1996, ‘Surrogate Climate Change Scenarios for Regional Climate Models’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 669–672.
Schubert, C.: 1992, ‘The Glaciers of the Sierra Nevada de Mérida (Venezuela): A Photographic Comparison of Recent Deglaciation’, Erdkunde 46, 58–64.
Smith, R. B.: 1979, ‘The Influence of Mountains on the Atmosphere’, in Advances in Geophysics, Volume 21, Academic Press, New York, pp. 87–230.
Thompson, L. G.: 1991, ‘Ice Core Records with Emphasis on the Global Record of the Last 2000 Years, in Bradley, R. S. (ed.), Global Changes of the Past, University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, pp. 201–224.
Thompson, L. G.: 1992, ‘Ice Core Evidence from Peru and China’, in Bradley, R. S. and Jones, P. D. (eds.), Climate Since A.D. 1500, Routledge, London, pp. 517–548.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., and Arnao, B. M.: 1984, ‘Major El Niño/Southern Oscillation Events Recorded in Stratigraphy of the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap’, Science 226, 50–52.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Bolzan, J. F., and Koci, B. R.: 1985, ‘A 1500 Year Record of Tropical Precipitation in Ice Cores from the Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru’, Science 229, 971–973.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., Bolzan, J. F., Dai, J., Gundestrup, N., Yao, T., Wu, X., Klein, L., and Xie, Z.: 1990, ‘Glacial Stage Ice Core Records from the Sub-Tropical Dunde Ice Cap, China’, Ann. Glaciol. 14, 288–298.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., Bolzan, J. F., Dai, J., Yao, T., Gundestrup, N., Wu, X., Klein, L., and Xie, Z.: 1989, ‘Holocene-Late Pleistocene Climatic Ice Core Records from Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau’, Science 246, 474–477.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., Lin, N., Yao, T., Dyurgerov, M., and Dai, J.: 1993, ‘“Recent Warming”: Ice Core Evidence from Tropical Ice Cores, with Emphasis on Central Asia’, Global Planet. Change 7, 145–156.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M. E., Lin, P-N., Henderson, K. A., Dai, J., Bolzan, J. F., and Liu, K-B.: 1995, ‘Late Glacial Stage and Holocene Tropical Ice Core Records from Huascarán, Peru’, Science 269, 46–50.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Dansgaard, W., and Grootes, P. M.: 1986, ‘The Little Ice Age as Recorded in the Stratigraphy of the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap’, Science 234, 361–364.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Wu, X., and Xie, Z.: 1988a, ‘Wisconsin/Würm Glacial Stage Ice in the Sub-Tropical Dunde Ice Cap, China’, Geojournal 17.4, 517–523.
Thompson, L. G., Davis, M., Mosley-Thompson, E., and Liu, K.: 1988b, ‘Pre-Incan Agricultural Activity Recorded in Dust Layers in Two Tropical Ice Cores’, Nature 336, 763–765.
Thompson, L. G., Mosley-Thompson, E., Davis, M., Lin, P. N., Henderson, K. A., Cole-Dai, J., Bolzan, J. F., and Liu, K.-B.: 1995, ‘Late Glacial Stage and Holocene Tropical Ice Core Records from Huascaran, Peru’, Science 269, 46–50.
Thompson, L. G. and Mosley-Thompson, E.: 1987, ‘Evidence of Abrupt Climatic Change during the Last 1500 Years Recorded in Ice Cores from the Tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap, Peru’, in Berger, W. H. and Labeyrie, L. D. (eds.), Abrupt Climatic Change, Reidel, Dordrecht, pp. 99–110.
Tranquillini, W.: 1993, ‘Climate and Physiology of Trees in the Alpine Timberline Regions’, in Frenzel, B., Eronen, M., Vorren, K-D., and Gläser, B. (eds.), Oscillations of the Alpine and Polar Tree Limits in the Holocene, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, pp. 127–135.
Trenberth, K. E. and Hoar, T. J.: 1995, ‘The 1990–1995 El Nino-Southern Oscillation Event: Longest on Record’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 57–60.
Trenberth, K. E. and Hurrell, J. W.: 1994, ‘Decadal Atmosphere-Ocean Variations in the Pacific’, Clim. Dyn. 9, 303–319.
Trenberth, K. E.: 1990, ‘Recent Observed Interdecadal Climate Changes in the Northern Hemisphere’, Bull. Amer. Meteorol. Soc. 71, 988–993.
Vinnikov, K. Ya., Robock, A., Stouffer, R. A., and Manabe, S.: 1996, ‘Vertical Patterns of Free and Forced Climate Variations’, Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 1801–1804.
Wigley, T. M. L. and Kelly, P. M.: 1990, ‘Holocene Climatic Change, 14C Wiggles and Variations in Solar Irradiance’, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London A330, 547–560.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
BENISTON, M., DIAZ, H.F. & BRADLEY, R.S. CLIMATIC CHANGE AT HIGH ELEVATION SITES: AN OVERVIEW. Climatic Change 36, 233–251 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005380714349
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005380714349