Treatise on Geomorphology8.26 Climate Change Impacts on Cold Climates

Since the onset of Cenozoic ice sheets, cold climate regions have played a leading role in planetary energy balance, atmospheric and global oceanic circulations. Glacial and periglacial processes in polar regions act as morphogenetic agents for landscape sculpting providing landforms and deposits that represent valuable records for investigating the amplitude of key phases of Cenozoic glacial history. Glacio-eustatic sea-level variations induce revolutionary environmental changes across the entire planet. Changes in periglacial processes also influence cold region hydrology, ecosystems, and soil carbon storage. Climatic and environmental changes in cold regions cause adaptation through ecological and evolutionary responses by organisms.