US-Australia Cooperative Research: Antarctic Paleobiology and Paleoenvironments during Pliocene Deglacial Warmth

这项奖金提供旅费支助，使内布拉斯加州-林肯大学的大卫·哈伍德博士能够于1993年7月和1994年7月访问澳大利亚南极分部和澳大利亚塔斯马尼亚大学和新英格兰大学。这项研究活动的重点是南极气候历史，并将在澳大利亚南极部科学助理主任帕特里克·奎迪博士的指导下与澳大利亚调查小组密切互动。澳大利亚团队包括塔斯马尼亚大学的罗伯特·希尔博士和安德鲁·麦克明博士，以及新南威尔士州阿米代尔市新英格兰大学的巴里·麦凯维博士。来自南极大陆地质沉积物研究的新证据表明，中新世中期南极东部冰盖发生了一次重大崩塌，上新世早期至中期海洋和陆地温度显著升高（~ 450万至250万）年前)。在这一时期，南极洲陆地植被的存活表明，早期的冰期并不像今天这样寒冷。这项研究将继续美国和澳大利亚对这些重要的陆地和海洋沉积物的合作研究，并将研究在这段去冰川变暖时期南极洲环境和生命的各种特征。这项研究将为一项国际研究工作提供关键的南方高纬度数据，以更好地了解和模拟气候变暖下的地球。具体而言，拟议的研究将产生古生物学资料并将其应用于古气候解释，将记录南极海洋和陆地生物的最后幸存者，并将继续开发微化石，特别是海洋硅藻，作为南极地质年代测定和古环境重建的工具。

This award provides travel support to allow Dr. David Harwood, University of Nebraska- Lincoln, to visit the Australian Antarctic Division and the Universities of Tasmania and New England in Australia during July 1993 and 1994. The research activity is focused on Antarctic climatic history and will involve close interaction with a team of Australian investigators under the direction of Dr. Patrick Quilty, the Assistant Director of Science of the Australian Antarctic Division. The Australian team includes Dr. Robert Hill and Dr. Andrew McMinn from the University of Tasmania and Dr. Barrie McKelvey from the University of New England located in Armidale, New South Wales. New evidence from studies of geological deposits on the Antarctic continent points to a major collapse of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet during the middle Miocene and significantly warmer marine and terrestrial temperatures during the early to mid-Pliocene (~4.5 to 2.5 million years ago). The survival of terrestrial vegetation in Antarctica during this period suggests that earlier glaciations were not as cold as today. The research will continue the U.S.-Australia cooperative study of these significant terrestrial and marine deposits and will address various features of the environment and life in Antarctica during this period of deglacial warmth. The research will contribute critical southern high-latitude data to an international research effort toward a better understanding and modeling of Earth under a warmer climate regime. Specifically the proposed research will produce and apply paleobiological information to paleoclimatic interpretations, will document the last survivors of Antarctic marine and terrestrial biotas, and will continue to develop microfossils, particularly marine diatoms, as tools for geologic age dating and paleoenvironmental reconstructions in the Antarctic.