COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Evaluating the Climate Sensitivity of Paleozoic PaleoVertisols Based on Analysis of a Modern Vertisol Climosequence

[9814607]我们假设，古返流土是一种富含粘土的古土壤，显示出广泛的收缩-膨胀过程的丰富证据，它包含了地质学家通常未充分解释的重要古气候信息。由于缺乏对现代土壤气候序列进行深入研究而确定的诊断性气候指标，阻碍了以古土壤为基础的古气候研究。因此，我们建议沿着气候样带研究德克萨斯州沿海草原地区的现代眩晕，以表征与气候相关的独特形态和化学特征。将母质、景观和时间等重要的成土因子作为常量，从而可以评估研究区年平均降水（60-140cm/yr）的重要性。利用我们在现代旋流岩中发现的诊断性形态和化学特征，我们将回到以前在阿巴拉契亚盆地古生代地层演替中出现的具有良好特征的古旋流岩，以重新评估它们的古气候意义。

9814607DrieseWe hypothesize that Paleo Vertisols, which are clay-rich paleosols exhibiting abundant evidence for extensive shrink-swell processes, contain important paleoclimate information that is generally underinterpreted by geologists. Paleoclimatic studies based on paleosols are hindered by lack of diagnostic climate indicators determined from thorough studies of climosequences in modern soils. We therefore propose to examine modern Vertisols in the Coastal Prairie region of Texas along a climatic transect in order to characterize the distinctive morphological and chemical features that correlate well with climate. Important soil-forming factors such as parent material, landscape, and time are held as constants, so that the importance of mean annual precipitation, which ranges from 60-140cm/yr across the study area, can be evaluated. Utilizing the diagnostic morphological and chemical features that we identify in the modern Vertisols, we will return to previously well-characterized paleo Vertisols occurring within the Appalachian basin Paleozoic stratigraphic succession in order to reevaluate their paleoclimatic significance.