Collaborative Research: Tree Ring Based Records of Temperature and Glacier Fluctuation Spanning the Past Two Millennia, Prince William Sound, Alaska

这项研究的主要目标是开发一个连续的树木年轮年表跨越过去2000年的生活和亚化石木材威廉王子湾，阿拉斯加南部。这份年表将提供过去两千年来北太平洋气候的年度解析记录。此外，长的树木年轮记录的发展将涉及交叉年代测定树木的进步，哥伦比亚和其他冰川周围的威廉王子湾;树木发芽和死亡的日期解释这些冰川前沿将使该地区的冰川波动，以十年的精度重建，亚化石日志将在五个地点在东部，北方和西部威廉王子湾采样。其中四个地点在早期的调查中已经被研究过，并提供了跨越公元100年至700年和公元873年至1991年的树木年轮记录。进一步的采样将增加样本大小，从而增加这些现有集合中的年表信号质量，并且还减少AD 700和873之间的记录中的差距。在哥伦比亚冰川的第五个地点已经深入研究了冰山崩解冰川系统的动力学，但缺乏史前波动的详细记录。初步收集表明，在哥伦比亚发现的树木年轮样本具有正确的年龄和长度，可以完全弥合现有树木年轮记录中的差距，从而完成跨越过去两千年的连续树木年轮系列。2000年的年轮宽度年表将是迄今为止北美五大湖以北最长的连续树木年轮系列。每年分解的气候记录将补充世界其他地方正在开发的其他这种数千年长度的记录，并可用于全球自然气候变化分析。追溯到公元1000年之前的冰川历史的发展将是第一次在任何地方实现这一目标。这些陆地终止冰川波动的记录将提供过去温度和降水变化的综合代用记录，以补充树木年轮记录。重建的波动哥伦比亚冰川将包括时间和速度的进步，并允许评估气候与非气候迫使这个潮水崩解冰川系统。

The primary objective of this research is to develop a continuous tree-ring chronology spanning the past 2000-years from living and subfossil wood around Prince William Sound, southern Alaska. This chronology will provide an annually resolved record of North Pacific climate for the past two-millennia. In addition, development of the long tree-ring record will involve cross-dating of trees killed by advances of Columbia and other glaciers around Prince William Sound; interpretation of the dates of tree germination and death on these glacier forefields will enable glacier fluctuations in the region to be reconstructed with decadal precision.Subfossil logs will be sampled at five localities in eastern, northern and western Prince William Sound. Four of these sites have previously been studied during earlier investigations and provide tree-ring records spanning cal. AD 100 to 700 and AD 873 to 1991. Further sampling will increase sample size and hence chronology signals quality in these existing collections, and also reduce the gap in record between AD 700 and 873. The fifth site at Columbia Glacier has been intensively studied in regard to dynamics of the iceberg-calving glacier system, but lacks a detailed record of prehistoric fluctuations. Preliminary collections suggest the tree-ring samples to be found at Columbia are of the correct age and length to completely bridge the gap in the existing tree-ring records and so allow completion of a continuous tree-ring-series spanning the past two millennia.The 2000-year ring-width chronology will be the longest continuous tree-ring-series in North America from north of the Great Lakes to date. The annually resolved climate record will compliment other such multi-millennia length records being developed elsewhere in the world and be of use in global analyses of natural climate variability. The development of calendar-dated glacial histories extending back before AD 1000 will be the first time this has been achieved anywhere. These records of land-terminating glacial fluctuations will provide an integrated proxy record of past temperature and precipitation changes to compliment the tree-ring record. The reconstruction of fluctuations of Columbia Glacier will include timing and rates of advances, and allow evaluation of climatic versus non-climatic forcing of this tidewater-calving glacier system.