U.S.-Australian Cooperative Research in Evidence for the Younger Dryas Event in Australia

该奖项支持罗德岛大学的Paul I.Abell博士在两年内两次访问西澳大利亚大学，与Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll博士、Jane C.Newome博士和George Kendrick博士合作。考虑到目前关于各种形式的大气污染带来的全球变暖和温室效应是否对我们的全球环境构成威胁的辩论，研究人员建议研究过去古气候的气候变化，绘制它们的时间和地理范围，以提供一些气候引起的灾难的程度的变暖。具体地说，他们将调查10000年前在澳大利亚西部发生的年轻戴维斯冰川事件的范围，该地区远离其推定的源头(加拿大中部冰川的融水分流)。研究人员将使用陆生腹足类贝壳中稳定的氧同位素比率技术(这项技术是阿贝尔博士在研究非洲中部和南部气候变化时首创的)，以提供气候变化的指标。罗德岛大学的同位素研究将与西澳大利亚大学的合作者进行的花粉和沉积物地貌学研究相平行。了解是什么导致了这一事件，它达到最大值的速度有多快，以及它持续了多长时间，对于理解未来气候变化的预期至关重要。

This award supports two visits over a two-year period by Dr. Paul I. Abell of the University of Rhode Island to the University of Western Australia, to work with Drs. Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, Jane C. Newsome, and George Kendrick. Mindful of the current debate on whether global warming and the greenhouse effect, brought on by various forms of atmospheric pollution, pose a threat to our global environment, the investigators propose examining past climatic changes in paleoclimates to map their temporal and geographic extent to give some warming of the magnitude of climatically-induced catastrophes. Specifically, they will investigate the extent of the Younger Davis reglaciation event of 10,000 years ago, in western Australia, a region remote from its putative source (meltwater diversion from glaciers in central Canada). The investigators will use techniques of stable isotope ratios of oxygen in the aragonitic shells of land gastropod shells (techniques pioneered by Dr. Abell in studies of climatic change in central and southern Africa) to provide a proxy for climate change. The isotopic studies at the University of Rhode Island will be paralleled by pollen and sediment geomorphology studies by collaborators at the University of Western Australia. Knowledge of what produced that event, how quickly it achieved its maximum, and how long it lasted, are crucial in understanding what to expect in future climatic changes.