Collaborative Research: The Nature and Role of Chemical Weathering and Pedogenesis in Regional Landscape Development, Western Tornetrask Basin, Arctic Sweden

高纬度高山环境是世界上最脆弱的环境之一，但也是最不被了解的环境之一。目前的全球环流模型预测最大的温度变化发生在高纬度地区。然而，这一变化对当地和区域景观可能产生的后果尚不确定。这项研究项目建立在一个单一山谷项目的概念、空间和时间维度上，以创建一个强大的区域模型，说明地表化学风化和土壤作用在景观发展中的作用。这项研究将在托内特拉斯克盆地西端加上瑞典西北部北纬约68度、东经约18度至19度的两个支流山谷及其限制脊进行。调查人员的目标是开展一项全面的景观发展调查，以认识到区域冰川历史的变化，并将通过提供更详细的信息来促进这一历史。他们将使用宇宙成因测年来开发关于冰川历史的信息，以及用来确定化学风化速率的基线数据。这一信息将与毗邻沉积带的放射性碳测年相联系，以直接联系地貌的相邻侵蚀和沉积元素的发展。在该项目的这一阶段，调查人员将取回粉碎的白云石和花岗岩鹅卵石，以及五年前放置在野外的白云岩、花岗岩和石灰岩的掩埋、机械抛光的圆盘，以评估按植被覆盖类型划分的风化微变化。这些样本将使用微探针分析和扫描电子显微镜进行分析，并将与储存在附近野外站点的对照样本进行比较。该项目是长达十年的努力的一部分，目的是研究寒冷地区的风化和土壤发育过程。该项目将以以前对瑞典拉普兰北极/高山地貌中化学风化和成土过程的性质的调查为基础。这项工作将涵盖更广泛的岩性，并开始将工艺研究与对基岩表面和土壤进行严格限制的年龄控制相结合。该项目还为重建部分芬诺斯坎迪亚冰盖的冰川历史提供了前景。该项目将继续发展与法国和瑞典研究人员的国际合作伙伴关系。

High-latitude alpine environments are among the most fragile in the world, but they are also among the least understood. Current global circulation models project the greatest temperature changes to occur in the high latitudes. The possibly consequences of this change on local and regional landscapes are uncertain, however. This research project builds in conceptual, spatial, and temporal dimensions on a single-valley project to create a robust regional model of the role of surficial chemical weathering and pedogenesis in landscape development. The study will take place the western end of the Tornetrask basin plus two tributary valleys and their confining ridges in northwestern Sweden at approximately 68-degress N and roughly between 18-degrees and 19-degrees E. The investigators aim to develop a comprehensive investigation of landscape development that recognizes variation in regional glacial history and will contribute to that history by providing more detailed information. They will use cosmogenic dating to develop information on glacial history as well as baseline data with which to determine rates of chemical weathering. This information will be linked to radiocarbon dating of abutting depositional zones to directly link development of adjacent erosional and depositional elements of the landscape. During this phase of the project, the investigators will retrieve crushed dolomite and granite pebbles and buried, machine-polished disks of dolomite, granite, and limestone that were placed in field sites five years earlier in order to assess weathering microvariability by vegetation cover type. These samples will be analyzed using microprobe analysis and scanning electron microscopy and will be compared with control samples that have been stored at a nearby field station.This project is part of a decade-long effort to examine the processes of weathering and soil development in a cold region. This project will build on previous investigations into the nature of chemical weathering and pedogenic processes in the Arctic/alpine landscape of Swedish Lapland. This effort will encompass a broader range of lithologies and start to couple the process studies with well-constrained age control of both bedrock surfaces and soils. The project also offers prospects for contributing to reconstruction of the glacial history of a portion of the Fennoscandian ice sheet. The project will continue development of international collaborative partnerships with French and Swedish researchers.