Inferring Glacier Summer Mass Balance From Tree-Rings in Reathian Alps (Italy)

• Main Authors: Cerrato R., Carturan L., Salvatore M. C., Baroni C.
• Other Authors: Cerrato, R., Carturan, L., Salvatore, M. C., Baroni, C.
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: English
• Published: country:IND 2017
• Subjects: permafrost
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11568/1000363

The increase of temperatures in the last decades is a well-established process. Middle latitude glaciers and the associated glacial and periglacial environment are particularly sensitive setting of the ongoing climate change. Glaciers bodies withdrawing and permafrost disappearing arouse change in landscape equilibrium promoting, and equilibrated by, geomorphological process such as rock fall and landslide. Furthermore, glacier bodies are an important clear water reservoir on which most of the agricultural activity and hydropower plants depended. Nevertheless climatic reconstruction has been performed, using both climatic models and dendroclimatic reconstructions, in the former case data availability and integrity sharply drop in the relative recent past, and in the latter, usage of samples coming from a wide range implicate a loss of the local climate signal. Usage of local dendrochronological series could amplify the local signal permitting better local climatic reconstructions to correlate with the glaciers mass balance. Here we present the attempt to reconstruct the potential water equivalent loss during the ablation season of the Careser Glacier (Raethian Alps, Central Italian Alps) during the last five centuries using dendrochronological series. Glaciers ablation and trees growing season coincide, permitting to compare the two series. Comparison between the high frequency components of the series highlighted plausible results opening the prospective to use dendrochronological series, an high sensitive tool with a seasonal resolution, to reconstruct glaciers mass balance even in the Alps and not only in high latitude environments. Our results might gave past information to better understand glaciers pattern under the pressure of recent climate change and the near future develops helping local community in water management and to mitigate hydrogeological hazards.