SGER: Long-term hurricane landfall records derived from marine microfossils in freshwater lake bed sediments

这项SGER提案是一项试点研究，旨在测试古风暴学领域的一种新方法。这项研究的目的是验证一个假设，即飓风风暴潮是由距离海岸内陆几公里的淡水池塘和湖泊中富含海洋微化石（有孔虫）的沉积物记录的。迄今为止，大多数古风暴学研究都是基于寻找和确定风暴潮携带的沙层的年代。然而，这种方法受到相对较少的合适地点的限制。距离沙滩海岸线几百米以内的湖泊和沼泽？许多地区，包括德克萨斯州的整个海岸线，仍未得到研究。如果这种新方法被证明是可行的，它有可能提供飓风袭击的长期记录，并将古风暴学研究扩展到许多以前被认为缺乏适合捕捉飓风信号的地点的新领域。这项研究将在德克萨斯州东南部的麦克法丁野生动物保护区进行。该保护区有许多天然的淡水池塘和湖泊，位于距离海岸几公里的地方，众所周知，这些地方曾被历史上的飓风风暴潮淹没。沉积物岩心将从几个池塘和湖床获得，并将检查富含有孔虫的层。将通过铯-137和放射性碳定年技术的结合，确定已确定的飓风沉积物的年表。本项目将建立在PI对飓风丽塔（2005）沉积的风暴潮沉积物的研究基础上，包括对沉积物微化石含量的新发现。如果在这项研究中测试的假设被证明是可行的，它将代表古风暴学领域的一种新方法，可以应用于大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸许多以前未被研究过的地点。这将增加长期飓风记录的数量和覆盖范围，这将在飓风风险评估、飓风在沿海地貌演变中的作用以及研究飓风活动周期与气候变化之间的关系等领域具有相当大的价值。更广泛的影响该项目具有重要的社会和教育效益。社会效益将包括改进对飓风袭击复发间隔和相关飓风风险的评估。本项目开发的方法可以提高大西洋和墨西哥湾沿岸飓风风险的空间分辨率，并更好地了解气候变化对飓风活动的影响。来自代表性不足群体的本科生将参与实地和实验室工作，并鼓励为会议演讲和出版物做出贡献。该项目的成果将广泛传播，以各种方式增进对科学和技术的了解，使科学研究人员、决策者和广大公众都能接触到。预计该项目将在几次会议上发表演讲和同行评议的期刊文章。

This SGER proposal is a pilot study designed to test a novel new approach in the field of paleotempestology. The objective of the study is to test the hypothesis that hurricane storm surges are recorded by sediments rich in marine microfossils (foraminifera) in freshwater ponds and lakes several km inland from the coast. To date, most paleotempestology studies have been based on finding and dating sand layers transported by storm surges. This approach, however, has been limited by the relatively low number of suitable sites ? lakes and marshes within a few hundred meters of sandy shorelines ? and many areas, including the entire coastline of Texas, remain unstudied. If this new approach is proved viable, it has the potential to provide long-term records of hurricane strikes and to expand paleotempestology studies into many new areas that were previously thought to lack sites suitable for capturing a hurricane signal. The study will be conducted at the McFaddin Wildlife Refuge in southeast Texas. The refuge has numerous natural freshwater ponds and lakes lying within a few km of the coast that are known to have been flooded by historical hurricane storm surges. Sediment cores will be obtained from several pond and lake beds and will be examined for foraminifera-rich layers. A chronology for identified hurricane deposits will be established by a combination of cesium-137 and radiocarbon dating techniques.Intellectual meritThis project will build on a study by the PI of storm surge sediments deposited by Hurricane Rita (2005), including new findings on the microfossil content of the deposits. If the hypothesis tested in this study proves viable, it will represent a new approach in the field of paleotempestology that can be applied at many previously unstudied sites along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. This will increase the number and areal coverage of long-term hurricane records, which will be of considerable value in fields such as hurricane risk assessment, the role of hurricanes in coastal geomorphological evolution and studies of the relationship between hurricane activity cycles and climate change.Broader ImpactsThis project has important societal and educational benefits. Societal benefits will include improved assessments of the recurrence interval of hurricane strikes and associated hurricane risk. The approach developed in this project could result in improved spatial resolution of hurricane risk along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and a better understanding of the effects of climate change on hurricane activity. An undergraduate student from an underrepresented group will participate in the field and laboratory work and will be encouraged to contribute to conference presentations and publications. The results of this project will be broadly disseminated to enhance scientific and technical understanding in a variety of ways, reaching scientific researchers, policy-makers and the public-at-large. It is anticipated that this project will result in several conference presentations and peer-reviewed journal articles.