Simulation of a former ice field with Parallel Ice Sheet Model : Snežnik study case

Depolli, Matjaž (author), Žebre, Manja (author), Stepišnik, Uroš (author), Kosec, Gregor (author)

In this paper, we present a reconstruction of climate conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum on a karst plateau Snežnik, which lies in Dinaric Mountains (southern Slovenia) and bears evidence of glaciation. The reconstruction merges geomorphological ice limits, classified as either clear or unclear, and a computer modelling approach based on the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM). Based on extensive numerical experiments where we studied the agreements between simulated and geomorphological ice extent, we propose using a combination of a high-resolution precipitation model that accounts for orographic precipitation combined with a simple elevation-based temperature model. The geomorphological ice extent can be simulated with climate to be around 6 °C colder than the modern day and with a lower-than-modern-day amount of precipitation, which matches other state-of-the art climate reconstructions for the era. The results indicate that an orographic precipitation model is essential for the accurate simulation of the study area, with moist southern winds from the nearby Adriatic Sea having a predominant effect on the precipitation patterns. Finally, this study shows that transforming climate conditions towards wetter and warmer or drier and colder does not significantly change the conditions for glacier formation.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Last Glacial Maximum, Parallel Ice Sheet Model
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 1471-1488
• Numbering: Vol. 20, iss. 7
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-166690
• UDC: 55
• ISSN on article: 1814-9332
• DOI: 10.5194/cp-20-1471-2024
• COBISS.SI-ID: 201439491
• Publication date in RUL: 21.01.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Climate of the past
• Shortened title: Clim. past
• Publisher: Copernicus Publications, European Geosciences Union
• ISSN: 1814-9332
• COBISS.SI-ID: 522303513

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: rekonstrukcija, zadnja poledenitev, glacial, podnebje, Snežnik, Slovenija, planote