Ice caves in the Pyrenees

Climate change is profoundly affecting mountain areas. While glacier retreat is highly visible, the underground cryosphere, including cave ice deposits, faces less apparent but equally concerning threats. These ice deposits serve as exceptional frozen archives. The analysis of environmental proxies such as stable isotopes, pollen, plant macrofossils and cryogenic cave minerals offers valuable insights into past environmental and climate dynamics. Research on ice caves in the Pyrenees has uncovered unique and novel information about past climatic conditions, treeline shifts, microbial communities and the dynamics of mountain permafrost. However, these fragile ice masses are rapidly diminishing due to rising temperatures, underscoring their critical role as palaeoenvironmental archives and sentinels of ongoing climate change.