Collaborative Research: Integrating Geomorphological and Paleoecological Studies to Reconstruct Neogene Environments of the Transantarctic Mountains

【摘要】本项目研究南极洲最后的生命遗迹，研究对象是保存异常完好的冻土带生物化石——苔藓、硅藻、介形虫、Nothofagus树叶、木材和昆虫遗骸，这些化石是最近在麦克默多干谷的古湖泊沉积物中发现的。一个跨学科小组将对该地区进行研究，以阐明有关气候和生物地理的信息。这些沉积物提供了独特而直接的信息，可以了解南极洲历史上一个关键时期的特征，也就是它结冰的时期。这些信息对于与间接代用物（例如从钻芯中获得的代用物）进行气候和冰盖状态的相关性至关重要。研究结果还将有助于了解在南美、印度和澳大利亚发现的类似生物的起源和迁移。就更广泛的影响而言，该项目支持早期职业研究人员，本科生和研究生的研究，对K12学生的各种形式的外展以及广泛的国际合作。这项工作还具有社会意义，因为其结果将为未来几个世纪大气二氧化碳含量与地球相似的时期南极洲冰盖提供直接约束，从而可能有助于海平面上升的预测模型。

AbstractThis project studies the last vestiges of life in Antarctica from exceptionally well-preserved fossils of tundra life--mosses, diatoms, ostracods, Nothofagus leaves, wood, and insect remains recently discovered in ancient lake sediments from the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The area will be studied by an interdisciplinary team to elucidate information about climate and biogeography. These deposits offer unique and direct information about the characteristics of Antarctica during a key period in its history, the time when it was freezing. This information is critical for correlation with indirect proxies, such as though obtained from drill cores, for climate and state of the ice sheet. The results will also help understand the origin and migration of similar organisms found in South America, India and Australia.In terms of broader impacts, this project supports an early career researcher, undergraduate and graduate student research, various forms of outreach to K12 students, and extensive international collaboration. The work also has societal relevance in that the outcomes will offer direct constraints on Antarctica's ice sheet during a time with atmospheric CO2 contents similar to those of the earth in the coming centuries, and thus may help predictive models of sea level rise.