Antarctic Penisula Climate Variability: A Historical and Paleoenvironmental Perspective

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This award, provided by the Office of Polar Programs (OPP) of the National Science Foundation (NSF), provides support, along with matching funds from the Environmental Studies Program at Hamilton College, for a workshop to be held at Hamilton College in September of 2001. The workshop will involve scientists from several other countries, in addition to the United States, who are actively involved in environmental research in the region. In addition, the workshop will take an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the environmental changes taking place in the region of the Antarctic Peninsula. The past several decades have demonstrated severe and rapid changes in the ecosystems and physical environment of the Antarctic Peninsula and the region stands out in the most recent IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report as the strongest regional "hot spot" for increased temperature trends. Global climate models that incorporate greenhouse gases and sulfate aerosols demonstrate a striking correspondence to the observed temperature trends. The workshop will address this correspondence and will place historical data into the context of geological and glaciological records of climate change over the last 12,000 years. Oceanographic and atmospheric linkages will be discussed and examined for decadal to millennial time scales. The results will be published in a bound volume of the Antarctic Research Series, pending approval by the editorial committee.