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

项目概要：自2003年以来，主要研究者一直在管理斯瓦尔巴群岛上的一个夏季REU站点，为有动力的地球科学本科生进行重要的气候变化研究，并使他们面临进行高纬度研究的挑战和回报。他们将获得资助，继续斯瓦尔巴特REU计划五年，并扩大气候如何影响现代冰川，河流湖泊和峡湾系统的计划范围。通过研究这些现代过程，他们将建立沉积与气象、冰川和海洋变量之间的可靠转换函数，从而使沉积记录能够更好地解释为晚全新世气候变化的高分辨率记录。学生整体参与定义他们的研究问题，并在整个程序中设计具体的可测试的假设。他们将在下一学年完成各自所在院校的研究项目。学术成就：北极是一个活跃的研究领域，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引发进一步的全球性变化。 最近公布的数据表明，北极变暖的速度比低纬度地区快得多，随着北冰洋浮冰的持续衰减，预计变化和生态系统破坏的速度将更快。斯瓦尔巴特群岛受到墨西哥暖流北方的强烈影响，因此其气候对全球尺度海洋环流的变化很敏感。斯瓦尔巴特群岛在过去90年里已经大大变暖，气候代用指标表明全新世气候变化更大。尽管如此，人们对亚世纪气候变化知之甚少，对北极地区十年尺度的变化几乎一无所知。该项目启动了对迅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特群岛地区的高分辨率代用记录。该项目通过招募和培训下一代北极研究人员，我们的现代过程研究将通过加强气候过程与气候之间的联系来直接改进未来气候变化的预测模型代理人他们已经并将继续尽一切努力从不同人群和缺乏内部研究机会的机构中招收学生。 主要研究者，本科生参与者和参与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教室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，主要研究人员正在通过国际极地年（IPY）的努力和环北极教育联盟开发令人兴奋的新合作。

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.