The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance
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The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance
Bingdian Wang
Philip Hughes
Christopher Darvill
Jamie Woodward
Corresponding author for this work
Geography
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peer-review
Abstract
Few glaciers remain in the Mediterranean region: those that do have mostly retreated well into cirques, persisting as small, isolated glaciers or ice patches. In this study, we found that summer temperatures in the Mediterranean region have risen dramatically since the 1970s with the average increasing by >1.9 °C by 2024 relative to the 1991–2020 mean. Winter precipitation in the Mediterranean region has shown a statistically significant slight declining trend over the last 75 years. From 2019 to 2023, snow cover duration declined across most of the Mediterranean. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has a limited influence on glacier mass balance and snowpack in the Mediterranean based on results of regression analysis. This is because the dominant control on mass balance change in the Mediterranean is summer temperature rather than precipitation, much more so than further north in Europe where NAO has more influence on glaciers. However, local topoclimate factors mitigate the summer temperature impact allowing the paradox of glacier survival in niche settings in some of the wettest Mediterranean regions. Most Mediterranean glaciers only survive high summer temperatures because of excess snow accumulation by avalanching snow, highlighting the key influence of local topoclimatic conditions on glacier survival in the Mediterranean region. The fact that Mediterranean glaciers only survive because of high accumulation but are also strongly affected by changes in summer temperature, accords with the global observation that warm-wet glaciers are more sensitive to changing temperature than cold-dry glaciers. Understanding how glaciers and snowpack respond to climate change in the Mediterranean mountains has relevance beyond this region and provides an important comparison for other mid-latitude regions where glaciers and snowpack are crucial for water supply.
Original language
Article number
105370
Journal
Global and Planetary Change
Volume
259
Early online date
9 Feb 2026
DOIs
Publication status
Published -
1 Apr 2026
Access to Document
10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105370
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CC BY
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Wang, B.
, Hughes, P.
, Darvill, C.
, & Woodward, J.
(2026).
The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance
Global and Planetary Change
259
, Article 105370.
Wang, Bingdian
; Hughes, Philip
; Darvill, Christopher
et al. /
The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance
. In:
Global and Planetary Change
. 2026 ; Vol. 259.
@article{a65681e09deb4daa85276919ca8a8e56,
title = "The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance",
abstract = "Few glaciers remain in the Mediterranean region: those that do have mostly retreated well into cirques, persisting as small, isolated glaciers or ice patches. In this study, we found that summer temperatures in the Mediterranean region have risen dramatically since the 1970s with the average increasing by >1.9 °C by 2024 relative to the 1991–2020 mean. Winter precipitation in the Mediterranean region has shown a statistically significant slight declining trend over the last 75 years. From 2019 to 2023, snow cover duration declined across most of the Mediterranean. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has a limited influence on glacier mass balance and snowpack in the Mediterranean based on results of regression analysis. This is because the dominant control on mass balance change in the Mediterranean is summer temperature rather than precipitation, much more so than further north in Europe where NAO has more influence on glaciers. However, local topoclimate factors mitigate the summer temperature impact allowing the paradox of glacier survival in niche settings in some of the wettest Mediterranean regions. Most Mediterranean glaciers only survive high summer temperatures because of excess snow accumulation by avalanching snow, highlighting the key influence of local topoclimatic conditions on glacier survival in the Mediterranean region. The fact that Mediterranean glaciers only survive because of high accumulation but are also strongly affected by changes in summer temperature, accords with the global observation that warm-wet glaciers are more sensitive to changing temperature than cold-dry glaciers. Understanding how glaciers and snowpack respond to climate change in the Mediterranean mountains has relevance beyond this region and provides an important comparison for other mid-latitude regions where glaciers and snowpack are crucial for water supply.",
author = "Bingdian Wang and Philip Hughes and Christopher Darvill and Jamie Woodward",
year = "2026",
month = apr,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105370",
language = "English",
volume = "259",
journal = "Global and Planetary Change",
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publisher = "Elsevier BV",
Wang, B
, Hughes, P
, Darvill, C
& Woodward, J
2026, '
The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance
',
Global and Planetary Change
, vol. 259, 105370.
The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance.
Wang, Bingdian
; Hughes, Philip
; Darvill, Christopher
et al.
In:
Global and Planetary Change
, Vol. 259, 105370, 01.04.2026.
Research output
Contribution to journal
Article
peer-review
TY - JOUR
T1 - The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance
AU - Wang, Bingdian
AU - Hughes, Philip
AU - Darvill, Christopher
AU - Woodward, Jamie
PY - 2026/4/1
Y1 - 2026/4/1
N2 - Few glaciers remain in the Mediterranean region: those that do have mostly retreated well into cirques, persisting as small, isolated glaciers or ice patches. In this study, we found that summer temperatures in the Mediterranean region have risen dramatically since the 1970s with the average increasing by >1.9 °C by 2024 relative to the 1991–2020 mean. Winter precipitation in the Mediterranean region has shown a statistically significant slight declining trend over the last 75 years. From 2019 to 2023, snow cover duration declined across most of the Mediterranean. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has a limited influence on glacier mass balance and snowpack in the Mediterranean based on results of regression analysis. This is because the dominant control on mass balance change in the Mediterranean is summer temperature rather than precipitation, much more so than further north in Europe where NAO has more influence on glaciers. However, local topoclimate factors mitigate the summer temperature impact allowing the paradox of glacier survival in niche settings in some of the wettest Mediterranean regions. Most Mediterranean glaciers only survive high summer temperatures because of excess snow accumulation by avalanching snow, highlighting the key influence of local topoclimatic conditions on glacier survival in the Mediterranean region. The fact that Mediterranean glaciers only survive because of high accumulation but are also strongly affected by changes in summer temperature, accords with the global observation that warm-wet glaciers are more sensitive to changing temperature than cold-dry glaciers. Understanding how glaciers and snowpack respond to climate change in the Mediterranean mountains has relevance beyond this region and provides an important comparison for other mid-latitude regions where glaciers and snowpack are crucial for water supply.
AB - Few glaciers remain in the Mediterranean region: those that do have mostly retreated well into cirques, persisting as small, isolated glaciers or ice patches. In this study, we found that summer temperatures in the Mediterranean region have risen dramatically since the 1970s with the average increasing by >1.9 °C by 2024 relative to the 1991–2020 mean. Winter precipitation in the Mediterranean region has shown a statistically significant slight declining trend over the last 75 years. From 2019 to 2023, snow cover duration declined across most of the Mediterranean. The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) has a limited influence on glacier mass balance and snowpack in the Mediterranean based on results of regression analysis. This is because the dominant control on mass balance change in the Mediterranean is summer temperature rather than precipitation, much more so than further north in Europe where NAO has more influence on glaciers. However, local topoclimate factors mitigate the summer temperature impact allowing the paradox of glacier survival in niche settings in some of the wettest Mediterranean regions. Most Mediterranean glaciers only survive high summer temperatures because of excess snow accumulation by avalanching snow, highlighting the key influence of local topoclimatic conditions on glacier survival in the Mediterranean region. The fact that Mediterranean glaciers only survive because of high accumulation but are also strongly affected by changes in summer temperature, accords with the global observation that warm-wet glaciers are more sensitive to changing temperature than cold-dry glaciers. Understanding how glaciers and snowpack respond to climate change in the Mediterranean mountains has relevance beyond this region and provides an important comparison for other mid-latitude regions where glaciers and snowpack are crucial for water supply.
U2 - 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105370
DO - 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105370
M3 - Article
SN - 0921-8181
VL - 259
JO - Global and Planetary Change
JF - Global and Planetary Change
M1 - 105370
ER -
Wang B
, Hughes P
, Darvill C
, Woodward J
The impact of 75 years of climate change on Mediterranean glacier mass balance
Global and Planetary Change
. 2026 Apr 1;259:105370. Epub 2026 Feb 9. doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2026.105370