Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand abstracts

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A revised Little Ice Age chronology of the Franz Josef Glacier, Westland, New Zealand

Krista M. McKinzey¹*
Wendy Lawson¹
Dave Kelly²
Alun Hubbard³

¹Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.
²School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.
³Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP Scotland, UK.

*Present address: Institute of Geography, School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, Edinburgh EH8 9XP Scotland, UK. Email: Krista.McKinzey@ed.ac.uk

Abstract  A reassessed Little Ice Age chronology of the Franz Josef Glacier is presented. Diameter at breast height of 1340 southern rata (Metrosideros umbellata) and kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa) was measured within 50, 150-m² quadrats in the Waiho Valley. Age-size relationships based on 60 tree-ring counts and associated diameter at breast height measurements were constructed, although the unknown shape of growth curves beyond the realm of tree-ring data rendered extrapolation unreliable. Thus, the revised chronology is interpreted from mapped tree-ring counts and measured diameter at breast height of the largest rata and kamahi within moraine limits and trimlines to determine the minimum time elapsed since deglaciation. The Franz Josef Glacier’s Little Ice Age (LIA) maximum culminated before ad 1600, when it terminated c. 4.5 km down-valley of its 2001 position. Subsequent, but lesser magnitude, re-advances culminated by c. ad 1600 and 1800. This pattern is strongly corroborated by other New Zealand proxy climate data. Evidence from this reassessment provides increasing support for an earlier LIA maximum of the Franz Josef Glacier than is often cited.

Keywords  Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand; Little Ice Age; glacier fluctuations; climate change; tree-rings; diameter at breast height 

R04014; Received 31 October 2004; accepted 1 November 2004; Online publication date 6 December 2004
Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand Volume 34, Number 4, December, 2004, pp 381–394

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