Researchers looked at the influence of human activity on the loss of glacier mass, which contributes to sea level rise.
Researchers looked at computer simulations of the climate to determine glacial changes between the years of 1851 and 2010, the University of Innsbruck reported.
"The results of our models are consistent with observed glacier mass balances," said climate researcher Ben Marzeion from the Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics of the University of Innsbruck.
The study included all glaciers outside of Antarctica. To make their findings the researchers used data from the Randolph Glacier Inventory (RGI).
"The RGI provides data of nearly all glaciers on the Earth in machine-readable format," said Graham Cogley from Trent University in Canada, one of the coordinators of the RGI and co-author of the current study.
The team can differentiate between different factors contributing to climate change in their model, which allowed them to distinguish between natural and anthropogenic influences on glacier mass.
"While we keep factors such as solar variability and volcanic eruptions unchanged, we are able to modify land use changes and greenhouse gas emissions in our models," researcher Ben Marzeion said. "In our data we find unambiguous evidence of anthropogenic contribution to glacier mass loss."
The research shows only about a quarter of glacial mass loss between 1851 to 2010 was linked to anthropogenic causes; between 1991 and 2010 that fraction increased to two-thirds.
"In the 19th and first half of 20th century we observed that glacier mass loss attributable to human activity is hardly noticeable but since then has steadily increased," said Ben Marzeion. The authors of the study.
The study also looked at models on regional scales, but this data is insufficient to derive any clear results from; although anthropogenic influence can be detected in regions such as the alps.
The study is supported, among others, by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the research area Scientific Computing at the University of Innsbruck.
