Melaine Le royUniversity of Geneva | UNIGE · Institute of Environmental Sciences
Melaine Le roy
PhD
About
39
Publications
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Introduction
I'm geomorphologist with interest in reconstructing Holocene glacier variations as well as high-elevation Holocene morphogenetic activity (e.g. landslides), mainly using dendrochronology and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide dating. I'm also interested in tree-ring dating of high-elevation vernacular building heritage in the Alps.
Publications
Publications (39)
Holocene glacier records from the western European Alps are still sparse, although a number of sites are well suited to constraining pre-and early-Little Ice Age (LIA) glacier advances. The present study provides the first dendrochronologically-based and calendar-dated Neoglacial glacier chronology for the Mont Blanc massif, French Alps. It is base...
Mit dem Aufkommen der Glaziologie im 19. Jh. begannen auch die Forschungen zur Rekonstruktion der vergangenen Gletscherschwankungen. Zunächst mussten sich solche Ansätze stark auf die Analyse historischer Dokumente beschränken. Mit den Fortschritten der Naturwissenschaften und vor allem der Datierungsmöglichkeiten im 20. Jh. waren schließlich für d...
Alpine glacier variations are known to be reliable proxies of Holocene climate. Here, we present a terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN)-based glacier chronology relying on 24 new 10 Be exposure ages, which constrain maximum Neoglacial positions of four small to mid-sized glaciers (Rateau, Lautaret, Bonnepierre and Etages) in the Ecrins-Pelvoux mass...
High-elevation traditional building has been little studied in the northern French Alps. In this study, five mountain pasture buildings located in the core area of the Vanoise National Park have been thoroughly sampled for dendrochronological analyses. he aim is to provide a first insight into the temporality of the occupation of these sites and to...
The term ‘Little Ice Age’ (LIA) is classically used to define a period of repeated and extensive glacier advances during the last millennium. In the meanwhile, this term is also used to address the period of relatively low temperatures between the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA), or Medieval Warm Period, and present-day warming. The end of the LIA i...
Although variations in building activity are a useful indicator of societal well-being and demographic development, historical datasets for larger regions and longer periods are still rare. Here, we present 54,045 annually precise dendrochronological felling dates from historical construction timber from across most of Europe between 1250 and 1699...
In this study, we examine glacier retreat and associated processes in the Lejiamayu valley, central Cordillera Blanca, Peru (9.27 • S; 77.48 • W) since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Based on detailed mapping of well-preserved moraines, we reconstruct glacier extent during the LGM, the Antarctic Cold Reversal (ACR) and the Little Ice Age (LIA), be...
The reconstruction of mountain glacier response to rapid climate change in the past allows accessing the effects of current climate change. Yet, the spatial and temporal variability of past glacier fluctuations is not fully understood. In this study, we address the timing of glacier fluctuations in the European Alps during the Younger Dryas/Early H...
As part of an archaeological research project, we investigate the geomorphology of the cold and arid study area by combining field mapping with use of orthoimages and DEM. To the north of a broad trunk valley floor, gentle slopes continuously vegetated culminate around 3000 m, while to the south steep slopes reaching to 3500 m are deeply incised an...
The Little Ice Age (LIA) occurred between CE 1250 and 1850 and is considered a period of moderate cold conditions, especially recorded in the northern hemisphere. Numerous recent studies provide robust evidence of glacier advances worldwide during the LIA and a dramatic retreat since then. These studies combined investigation of moraine records, pa...
The Ecrins massif, in the French Alps, is very suitable for TCR dating, due to its granitic and gneissic composition. Nevetheles, only very few data are available so far on the Lateglacial glacier retreat, mainly because of the sparcity of well preserved Lateglacial moraine sequences.
For the present study, four moraine sequences were dated by mea...
Alpine glaciers are known to be highly sensitive to change in
temperature and precipitation on decadal to centennial time scales. For
two decades, numerous studies on Holocene climate revealed a period
marked by abrupt cold reversals (e.g. 8.2 ka event) with increasing
frequency and magnitude after the Holocene Climatic Optimum, during the
so-calle...
Mountain glaciers are one of the most reliable climatic proxy on Earth through their rapid response to slight changes in forcing and their wide distribution. For these reasons glacial chronologies constitutes reference series against which other paleoenvironmental reconstructions are evaluated. In the current context of global warming and glacier w...
As part of the EU-funded project GlaRiskAlp (Alcotra France-Italy), we
realize a French Alps glaciers inventory. For the present glacier
extension, it is based on 2006-2009 orthophotographs (50 cm resolution),
and lists the French Alps glaciers, maps their limits, and implement a
database (surface area, maximal and minimal elevation, aspect,
exposi...
In the alpine regions of France and NW Italy, many glaciers of a variety
of sizes are at least partly debris-covered, but these have received
less scientific research than clean glaciers. During the present period
of glacier shrinkage - the area of glacier cover in France has reduced
by 26% over the last 40 years -, growing debris cover needs to be...
La dendroglaciologie est l'un des champs de la dendrochronologie qui s'applique à la reconstitution des fluctuations glaciaires en analysant le signal climatique et/ou géomorphologique contenu dans les cernes de croissance des arbres. Son utilisation est devenue courante aujourd'hui pour dater les récurrences glaciaires dans les régions où les gla...
La lichenométrie est une méthode de datation fréquemment utilisée pour reconstituer les fluctuations glaciaires du Petit Age de Glace (PAG) dans des massifs montagneux pour lesquels les données historiques sont très fragmentaires. Dans les Alpes, son utilisation est restreinte par des facteurs liés à la croissance du lichen sous les latitudes moyen...
Le massif du Mont Blanc, espace frontalier entre trois pays alpins, constitue un laboratoire scientifique de premier ordre pour étudier plusieurs des problématiques de recherche du laboratoire EDYTEM, notamment en ce qui concerne les domaines glaciaires et périglaciaires. Dans ce contexte, un inventaire des aérophotographies couvrant le massif et d...
Projects
Projects (5)
Create and consolidate a research network aimed at producing new scientific knowledge relative to past Holocene glacier variability throughout the Andes region, as well as compare the acquired knowledge with available evidence from the northern hemisphere over decadal to millennial time scales
CLIMAT AmSud funded project (https://www.sticmathamsud.org/climat/presentacion/). Create and consolidate a research network aimed at producing new scientific knowledge relative to past Holocene glacier variability throughout the Andes region, as well as compare the acquired knowledge with available evidence from the northern hemisphere over decadal to millennial time scales.
Dating Holocene glacier advances and deciphering extensive periods of glacier retreat during the Holocene based on the analysis of subfossil organic remains (wood, peat)
