Collaborative Research ETBC: Peatlands as Carbon and Water Sinks under Warm Climates in the Susitna Basin, South-Central Alaska

合作研究ETBC：阿拉斯加中南部Susitna盆地温暖气候下的泥炭地作为碳和水的汇。阿拉斯加和其他地方的冰川正在融化，冰川融水可能会引起水文和泥炭地生态系统功能的深刻变化。然而，我们不知道？我不知道融水在区域尺度上的影响程度和机制，也不知道泥炭地碳和水储量变化的潜在反馈。该提案旨在评估气候引起的冰川融化加速了阿拉斯加中南部Susitna山谷泥炭地的横向扩张和垂直生长的假设。这个跨学科项目将利用野外监测（年际分辨率）、遥感（年代际分辨率）和古生态（年代际到百年分辨率）技术，在Susitna盆地成对的冰川和非冰川流域记录过去1000年泥炭地在区域尺度上的时空变化。我们将使用现代生态水文监测和地球化学示踪剂来了解泥炭地动态与气候和水文的持续变化之间的联系。我们将重建泥炭地的水分和碳积累历史，以评估泥炭地对小冰期和中世纪暖期（过去的冰川进退事件）的响应。更广泛的影响。本项目将汇集4名来自生态学和古生态学、水文气候学和低温地球化学、遥感和冰雪科学等不同领域的青年研究人员，研究生态系统的长期发展和当代生态水文动力学。该项目将启动他们之间的合作和互动，将新的想法和多学科工具结合起来，在高纬度和高海拔地区开展全球变化科学。该项目将包括对研究生的跨学科培训，以及为里海大学和俄亥俄州立大学的本科生提供研究经验。俄勒冈州立大学伯德极地研究中心的一位教育专家将利用这个项目的成果制定一个创新的推广计划，以改善向初中和高中教师提供气候变化信息的方式。此外，该项目将为哥伦布动物园的一个新的极地前沿展览（以阿拉斯加前沿为特色）提供材料。这项研究的结果将为理解不断变化的世界中气候变化、冰川动态、水文和生态系统之间的联系提供有价值的见解。该项目将促进水文科学、生态系统研究、地球生物学和低温地球化学等学科领域的发展。此外，该项目还获得了ETBC（生物地球化学循环新兴课题）的支持，因为它体现了跨学科研究的重点，即在一定时间和空间尺度上对气候-水-碳动力学和物理-化学-生物过程进行了综合研究。

Collaborative Research ETBC: Peatlands as Carbon and Water Sinks under Warm Climates in the Susitna Basin, South-Central AlaskaIntellectual Merits. Glaciers in Alaska and elsewhere are melting, and glacier meltwater likely induces profound changes in hydrology and the functions of peatland ecosystems. However, we don?t know the magnitude and mechanisms of meltwater impacts at a regional scale nor potential feedbacks from the resulting changes in peatland carbon and water storage. This proposal intends to evaluate the hypothesis that climate-induced glacier melting has accelerated the lateral expansion and vertical growth of peatlands in the Susitna Valley of south-central Alaska. This interdisciplinary project will document temporal and spatial changes in peatlands at a regional scale over the last 1000 years using field monitoring (interannual resolution), remote sensing (decadal resolution) and paleoecological (decadal to centennial resolution) techniques in paired glacierized and non-glacierized watersheds of the Susitna Basin. We will use modern ecological and hydrological monitoring and geochemical tracers to understand the connection between peatland dynamics and ongoing changes in climate and hydrology. We will reconstruct peatland moisture and C accumulation history to evaluate peatland responses to the Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period (past glacier advance and retreat events). Broader Impacts. This project will bring together 4 junior researchers from diverse fields of ecology and paleoecology, hydroclimatology and low-temperature geochemistry, and remote sensing and ice/snow science to study both long-term ecosystem development and contemporary ecological and hydrologic dynamics. The project will initiate collaboration and interactions among them to bring fresh ideas and multidisciplinary tools together to conduct global change science in high latitudes and high altitudes. The project will include interdisciplinary training of graduate students and research experience for undergraduate students at Lehigh and Ohio State Universities. An educational specialist at the Byrd Polar Research Center at OSU will use the results from this project to develop an innovative outreach program to improve the delivery of climate change information to middle and high school teachers. Also, the project will contribute materials to a new Polar Frontier exhibit (featuring Frontier Alaska) in the Columbus Zoo. The results from this study will provide valuable insights into understanding the connections of climate change, glacier dynamics, hydrology, and ecosystems in a changing world. The project will contribute to disciplinary areas in hydrologic sciences, ecosystem studies, and geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry. Furthermore, the project has merited the support by ETBC (Emerging Topics in Biogeochemical Cycles) because it exemplifies interdisciplinary research focused on the tandem investigation of climate-water-carbon dynamics and physical-chemical-biological processes over a range of temporal and spatial scales.