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

该项目从保存极为完好的苔原生物化石中研究了南极洲最后的生命遗迹--苔藓、硅藻、介形虫、Nothofagus树叶、木材和昆虫遗骸，这些化石最近在麦克默多干燥山谷的古代湖泊沉积物中被发现。该地区将由一个跨学科小组进行研究，以阐明有关气候和生物地理的信息。这些沉积物提供了关于南极洲历史上一个关键时期--冰冻时期--特征的独特和直接的信息。这一信息对于气候和冰盖状态与间接指标的关联至关重要，尽管这些指标是从钻探岩心获得的。研究结果还将有助于理解在南美、印度和澳大利亚发现的类似生物的起源和迁移。在更广泛的影响方面，该项目支持早期职业研究人员、本科生和研究生研究、面向K12学生的各种形式的外联以及广泛的国际合作。这项工作还具有社会意义，因为研究结果将在未来几个世纪大气二氧化碳含量与地球相似的时期直接制约南极洲的冰盖，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.