For those brave enough the icy cold glacial waters of Lake Wakatipu can offer a brief refuge from the hot summer sun.
During glacial periods cold temperatures existed at lower altitudes than today, allowing alpine grasslands to occur down to 2,500 masl, approximately 1,000 m below their current interglacial range (Lozano-García et al. 2005; Metcalfe 2006; Vázquez-Selem and Heine 2011).
Pollen, aquatic microfossils, and charcoal, as well as previously published data including diatom assemblages, carbonate content, and stable carbon isotopic ratios of organic carbon, indicate that interglacials were warm and dry whereas the peaks of glacials were cold and wet.
Most existing permafrost in the subarctic probably formed in the cold (glacial) period of the past 100,000 years.
The most recent peak was during the last glacial maximum, a cold period 25,000 years ago that preceded the end of the last ice age.
Insects are adapted to every land and freshwater habitat where food is available, from deserts to jungles, from glacial fields and cold mountain streams to stagnant, lowland ponds and hot springs.
During the rapid climatic fluctuations of the past two million years in which conditions alternated between dry, cold glacial states the ice ages of some northern temperate regions and warmer, moister interglacial intervals, tree species of temperate forests had to migrate repeatedly to remain within climates suitable for their survival.
This means that glacial activity in cold climates actually increases the difference in height between mountain peaks and valleys.
There are 34 paleosol horizons (S0 S33) developed during warm interglacial periods, interbedded with 34 loess horizons (L1 L34) deposited during cold glacial periods.
