The Svalbard REU - Holocene and Modern Climate Change in the High Arctic

RoofOPP-0649006项目摘要：自2003年以来，首席调查人员一直在斯瓦尔巴特群岛为积极从事重要气候变化研究的地球科学本科生管理一个夏季REU站点，并使他们面临进行高纬度研究的挑战和回报。他们将获得资金，将斯瓦尔巴群岛REU计划再持续五年，并扩大该计划的范围，研究气候如何影响现代冰川、河流湖泊和峡湾系统。通过研究这些现代过程，他们将在沉积物与气象、冰川和海洋变量之间建立可靠的传递函数，从而使沉积物记录能够更好地被解释为晚全新世气候变化的高分辨率记录。学生在整个项目中完整地参与定义他们的研究问题和设计具体的可检验的假设。他们将在下一学年在本国机构完成研究项目。智力优势：北极是一个活跃的研究地区，因为它对气候变化高度敏感，而且该地区气候引起的环境变化可能会引发进一步的全球后果变化。最近公布的数据表明，北极变暖的速度远远快于低纬度，随着北冰洋积冰的持续消融，预计变化和生态系统破坏的速度会更快。斯瓦尔巴群岛受到墨西哥湾暖流北端的强烈影响，因此其气候对全球尺度海洋环流的变化非常敏感。在过去的90年里，斯瓦尔巴群岛的气候显著变暖，气候指标表明全新世的气候变异性更大。尽管如此，人们对亚世纪的气候变化知之甚少，对这一北极地区的十年尺度变化几乎一无所知。该项目启动了对快速变化的北极冰冻圈/水圈的长期监测，这将有助于解释斯瓦尔巴群岛地区的高分辨率替代记录。广泛影响：该项目通过招募和培训下一代北极研究人员使社会受益，我们的现代过程研究将通过加强气候过程和气候替代物之间的联系，直接改进对未来气候变化的预测模型。它们已经并将继续尽一切努力从不同人口和缺乏内部搜索机会的机构招收学生。首席调查员、本科生学员和K-12教师将继续就北极气候变化问题和科学教育的重要性向公众进行频繁和广泛的宣传，提高世界各地K-12课堂对北极环境变化的认识。该项目扩大了与国际机构的现有合作，首席研究人员正在通过国际极地年(IPY)的努力和环北极U北极教育联盟开展令人振奋的新合作。

ABSTRACTRoofOPP-0649006Project Summary: Since 2003, the Principal Investigators have been administering a summer REU site on the Svalbard archipelago for motivated geoscience undergraduate students in important climate change research and exposes them to the challenges and rewards of conducting high latitude research. They will be funded to continue the Svalbard REU program for another five years and to expand the scope of the program on how climate influences the modern glacial, fluvial lacustrine, and fjord systems. By studying these modern processes, they will establish reliable transfer functions between sedimentation and meteorological, glaciological and oceanic variables that will allow the sediment record to be better interpreted as a high-resolution record of late Holocene climate change. The students are integrally involved in defining their research questions and designing specific testable hypotheses throughout the program. They will complete their research projects at their home institutions during the following academic year.Intellectual Merit: The Arctic is an area of active research because it is highly sensitive to climate change and because climatically induced environmental changes in this region can instigate further changes of global consequence. Recently published data indicate that the Arctic is warming much faster than lo*wer latitudes and even greater rates of change and ecosystem disruption are predicted with the continuing decay of the Arctic Ocean pack ice. Svalbard is strongly influenced by the northern end of the warm Gulf Stream current, and therefore its climate is sensitive to changes in global scale oceanic circulation. Svalbard has warmed considerably during the last 90 years and climate proxies indicate even greater Holocene climate variability. Despite this, little is known of sub-century climate change and virtually nothing is known of decadal scale variability in this Arctic region. This project has initiated long term monitoring of the rapidly changing Arctic cryospheric/hydrosphere that will facilitate interpretation of high-resolution proxy records from the Svalbard region.Broader Impacts: This project benefits society by recruiting and training the next generation of Arctic researchers, and our modern process studies will directly improve predictive models of future climate change by strengthening the link between climate processes and climate proxies. They have and will continue to make every effort to recruit students from diverse populations and from institutions lacking in-houseresearch opportunities. The Principal Investigators, undergraduate participants, and participating K-12 teachers will continue to make frequent and wide-reaching outreach to public audiences on Arctic climate change issues and the importance of science education, increasing awareness of Arctic environmental change in K-12 classrooms around the world. This project expands existing collaborations with international institutions, and the Principal Investigators are developing exciting new collaborationsthrough International Polar Year (IPY) efforts and the circum-Arctic UArctic educational consortium.