Glacier Change in the Southern Indian Ocean: Brown Glacier, Heard Island

南印度洋的冰川变化：赫德岛布朗冰川

• 批准号: 0335936
• 负责人: Martin Truffer
• 金额: $ 4.38万
• 依托单位: University of Alaska Fairbanks Campus
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-10-01 至 2004-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0335936&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Glacier; Change; Southern; Indian; Ocean

This award supports a Small Grant for Exploratory Research (SGER) to take advantage of an opportunity that recently presented itself for the P.I. to work on Heard Island with the Australian Antarctic Division (AAD). Heard Island is a small (367 km 2 ) subantarctic island which consists of a 2700 m high composite volcano that is glacierized on all sides.. The objective of the work is to determine the current mass balance, geometry and flow regime of Brown Glacier on Heard Island in the Southern Indian Ocean. The work will help to establish a baseline profile of Heard Island glaciers by measuring some basic glaciological parameters (mass balance, flow velocity, ice thickness). This will help relate the observed glacier changes to climate, and thus provide an important indicator of climate change in one of the most remote and least visited places on the planet. The proposed work provides an excellent opportunity for U.S. involvement in an area where it would be nearly impossible to operate without local collaboration. The intellectual merit of this study is that it adds to observations of climate change in a region of the world that is very difficult to access, and where few data have been collected. Heard Island is one of only few landmasses at this latitude, and its elevation range makes it a prime candidate for glacier study. Documenting glacier change fills an important gap in the picture of global climate change. The broader impacts of this work are that this is a collaborative project with the Australian Antarctic Division who will provide the logistics and some personnel. The work will be part of a Ph.D. thesis at the University of Tasmania in Hobart, Australia and will thus contribute to the education of a young scientist. The Heard Island field team includes geologists, glaciologists, and plant and wildlife biologists, studying this unique system. Much of the work is interdisciplinary, such as the study of plant re-colonization after glacial retreat. Heard Island is a World Heritage site, and it is believed that no human-introduced plant or animal life exists on the island. The Australian Antarctic Division has a long history of successful collaboration with U.S. investigators and is keen on maintaining that. It concentrates its work in and around the eastern part of the Antarctic continent, and therefore complements the U.S. work on the western part of Antarctica. The results of this work will be published in peer-reviewed journals. The investigator has also given lectures to the general public and provided feedback to journalists on glacier issues, and will continue to do so in the future.

该奖项支持探险研究小额赠款(SGER)，以利用最近为P.I.与澳大利亚南极分部(AAD)在赫德岛合作的机会。赫德岛是一个亚南极小岛(367平方公里)，由一座2700米高的四面冰化的复合火山组成。这项工作的目的是确定南印度洋赫德岛上的布朗冰川目前的质量平衡、几何形状和流态。这项工作将有助于通过测量一些基本的冰川学参数(质量平衡、流速、冰层厚度)来建立希尔德岛冰川的基线轮廓。这将有助于将观测到的冰川变化与气候联系起来，从而为地球上最偏远、游客最少的地方之一的气候变化提供一个重要的指标。拟议中的工作为美国参与一个几乎不可能在没有当地合作的情况下运作的领域提供了一个极好的机会。这项研究的学术价值在于，它增加了对世界上一个很难获得、收集的数据很少的地区的气候变化的观察。赫德岛是这个纬度为数不多的几个陆地之一，其海拔范围使其成为研究冰川的主要候选对象。记录冰川变化填补了全球气候变化图景中的一个重要空白。这项工作的更广泛影响是，这是一个与澳大利亚南极分部合作的项目，该分部将提供后勤和一些人员。这项工作将是澳大利亚霍巴特塔斯马尼亚大学博士论文的一部分，因此将有助于年轻科学家的教育。赫德岛的野外团队包括地质学家、冰川学家以及植物和野生动物生物学家，他们研究这个独特的系统。许多工作是跨学科的，例如研究冰川消退后的植物重新定居。赫德岛是世界遗产，人们认为该岛上没有人类引入的动植物。澳大利亚南极分部与美国调查人员成功合作的历史由来已久，并热衷于保持这种合作。它的工作集中在南极大陆东部及其周围，因此是对美国在南极西部工作的补充。这项工作的结果将发表在同行评议的期刊上。调查人员还向公众进行了演讲，并向记者提供了关于冰川问题的反馈，并将在未来继续这样做。