La Perouse Glacier, Alaska air temperature and tree-ring data 2018-2021

Reconstructing how biota have responded to fast-paced warming events in the past can help predict their responses to rapid climate changes in the future. Here we suggest that natural communities located near glaciers are useful laboratories for this purpose as they experienced climate changes accentuated by past ice-margin fluctuations. By reconstructing an Alaskan glacier’s position over a 166-year period and measuring the periglacial air temperatures over the last three years, we estimate that the adjacent temperate rainforest episodically cooled and warmed by 0.5-0.7°Celsius / decade. These rates of change exceed most historical warming trends measured elsewhere on Earth and are comparable to the rates of climate warming predicted for the next century. At each station, Pendant Hobo sensors (Onset Corporation) were secured in north-facing, blind holes (5 x 3 x 5 centimeters) drilled into the boles of snags. The ring-width responses of yellow-cedar trees growing at varying distances from the ice edge illustrate the potential for using periglacial ecosystems to predict how forests may respond to rapid warming in the future.重建生物群系对过去快速升温事件的响应模式，可为预测其未来对快速气候变化的响应提供科学参考。本研究提出，冰川周边的自然群落是开展此类研究的理想实验室——这类群落曾经历过受古冰缘波动放大的气候变化。通过重建阿拉斯加某冰川166年间的位置变化，并监测近三年的冰缘（periglacial）空气温度，我们估算得出，毗邻的温带雨林气温呈现周期性冷暖波动，变化速率达0.5~0.7摄氏度每十年。此类变化速率远超全球多数区域已观测到的历史升温趋势，且与未来百年预估的气候升温速率相当。在每个监测站点，悬挂式Hobo传感器（Onset Corporation）被固定于朝向北方的枯立木（snag）树干所钻制的盲孔（5×3×5厘米）中。生长在距冰缘不同距离的黄杉（yellow-cedar）的年轮宽度响应特征，证实了利用冰缘生态系统预测森林未来对快速升温响应的可行性。