Dry Valleys Late Holocene Climate Variability

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This award supports a project to collect and develop high-resolution ice core records from the Dry Valleys region of Antarctica, and provide interpretations of interannual to decadal-scale climate variability during the last 2000 years (late Holocene). The project will test hypotheses related to ocean/atmosphere teleconnections (e.g., El Nino Southern Oscillation, Antarctic Oscillation) that may be responsible for major late Holocene climate events such as the Little Ice Age in the Southern Hemisphere. Conceptual and quantitative models of these processes in the Dry Valleys during the late Holocene are critical for understanding recent climate changes, and represent the main scientific merit of the project. We plan to collect intermediate-length ice cores (100-200m) at four sites along transects in Taylor Valley and Wright Valley, and analyze each core at high resolution for stable isotopes (d18O, dD), major ions (Na+, Mg2+, Ca2+, K+, NH4+, Cl-, NO3-, SO42-, MSA), and trace elements (Al, Fe, S, Sr, B). A suite of statistical techniques will be applied to the multivariate glaciochemical dataset to identify chemical associations and to calibrate the time-series records with available instrumental data. Broader impacts of the project include: 1) contributions to several ongoing interdisciplinary Antarctic research programs; 2) graduate and undergraduate student involvement in field, laboratory, and data interpretation activities; 3) use of project data and ideas in several UMaine courses and outreach activities; and 4) data dissemination through peer-reviewed publications, UMaine and other paleoclimate data archive websites, and presentations at national and international meetings.