Response of Very Small Glaciers to Climate Variations and Change: Examples from the Pirin Mountains, Bulgaria

Abstract

Very small glaciers (glacierets) react strongly to climatic variations. This is well expressed in their interannual size changes, which are most evident in autumn, at the end of the glacial mass balance year. This study presents results from the detailed research of two very small glaciers in the highest northern part of the Pirin Mountains of Bulgaria: Snezhnika and Banski suhodol. Systematic size measurements of these firn-ice bodies, which started in the 1990s and have been made simultaneously for a period of 13 years, show large inter-annual amplitudes against the background of a decreasing trend in response to climate warming. However, the relations are not straightforward, which is demonstrated when comparing size changes to climate data, including logger data obtained from glacier vicinity. This fact makes predictions for the changes in the local climate of high mountain cirques still relatively uncertain.