Tracing tropical Andean glaciers over space and time: Some lessons and transdisciplinary implications

Tropical Andean glaciers are sensitive to climate changes over different temporal and spatial scales and are important hydrological resources. They exist in a dynamic interface between the atmosphere and lithosphere, hypothesized to influence rates of tectonic uplift. An accurate understanding of the extent and timing of past tropical glacial advances is a crucial source of paleoclimatic information for the validation and comparison of global climate models. Both present-day glacier recession and field evidence of past episodes of deglaciation in the Central Andes of Perú and Bolivia have been used to test hypotheses about how these glaciers respond to climatic forcing, and likewise impact developing societies and ecosystems downstream. Results from three facets of this research into tropical glacial recession are reviewed. In this context, glacial-environmental assessment is discussed as a focal point for transdisciplinary investigations of both physical and human dimensions of climate change. Important insights are gained when these ice masses are evaluated from different disciplinary perspectives as transient phases of water in specific topographic contexts.