Collaborative Research: Integrative Study of Marine Ice Sheet Stability & Subglacial Life Habitats in W Antarctica - Lake & Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling (

该奖项是根据2009年《美国复苏和再投资法案》(公法111-5)提供资金的。LISSARD项目(湖泊和冰川冰下获取研究钻探)是WISSARD综合倡议(威兰冰流冰下获取研究钻探)的三个研究组成部分之一，该倡议由美国国家科学基金会极地方案办公室南极分部南极综合系统科学计划资助。WISSARD的总体科学目标是评估西南极冰流下的水在相互关联的冰川学、地质学、微生物学、地球化学和海洋系统中的作用。WISSARD的LISARD部分侧重于活跃的冰下湖泊在确定南极西部冰盖向全球海洋流失质量并影响全球海平面变化的速度方面所起的作用。南极冰下湖泊的重要性直到最近才被认识到，这些湖泊被确定为科学调查的高度优先目标，因为它们对未来全球变暖情景下冰盖稳定的贡献未知。Lissard有几个主要的科学目标：a)为改进冰盖质量平衡和稳定模型中冰川下水文和力学过程的处理提供一个观测基础；b)通过分析冰下沉积物、孔隙水、湖泊水和基础积冰中所含的过去的基础水和冰流变异性的档案，重建过去冰流稳定性的历史；c)提供对冰下湖泊环境的背景了解，从而有利于RADES和GBASE(世界科学与空间研究组织项目的另外两个组成部分)；以及D)综合作为这一项目的一部分开发的数据和概念，以确定冰下湖泊是否在(去)稳定南极冰盖方面发挥重要作用。我们提出了一种史无前例的综合方法来研究冰盖过程，包括：(1)卫星遥感，(2)地表地球物理，(3)钻孔观测和测量，(4)基础和冰下采样。学术价值：政府间气候变化专门委员会的最新报告承认，评估未来全球海平面变化的最大不确定性源于对冰盖动力学和冰盖易受海洋和大气变暖影响的了解不足。仅南极西部冰盖的解体就将导致全球海平面上升3-5米，这使其成为科学关注的焦点，因为它可能容易受到内部或海洋驱动的不稳定的影响。整个WISSARD项目将检验最重要的假设，即活跃的水排放连接各种冰下环境，并对冰盖流动、地球化学、新陈代谢和系统发育多样性以及生物地球化学转化发挥主要控制作用。更广泛的影响：社会相关性：全球变暖、冰盖融化以及由此导致的海平面上升具有高度的社会相关性。科学资源开发：在中断9年后，WISSARD将为美国科学界提供访问和研究亚冰盖环境的新能力。开发这一技术基础设施将使更广泛的科学界受益，资产将通过NSF-OPP钻井承包商获得，供未来使用。此外，这些项目将开创一种方法，落实国家研究理事会关于探索和研究冰下环境的环境管理原则委员会(2007年)的建议。教育和外联(E/O)：这些活动分为四类：i)通过将极地研究完全纳入我们的研究计划来增加学生对极地研究的参与；ii)通过将有前途的年轻研究人员纳入我们的计划来引入新的极地科学研究人员；iii)通过结合各种教师和NSTA计划来促进K-12教学计划；以及iv)通过科普杂志、博物馆活动以及录像和纪录片等场所接触到更多的公众受众。总之，WISSARD将通过向公众传达访问和研究可能是地球上最后一些未被探索的水生环境的兴奋之情，促进对南极洲的科学探索，这些环境可能是欧罗巴和火星上外星生命栖息地的潜在类比。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). The LISSARD project (Lake and Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) is one of three research components of the WISSARD integrative initiative (Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling) that is being funded by the Antarctic Integrated System Science Program of NSF's Office of Polar Programs, Antarctic Division. The overarching scientific objective of WISSARD is to assess the role of water beneath a West Antarctic ice stream in interlinked glaciological, geological, microbiological, geochemical, and oceanographic systems. The LISSARD component of WISSARD focuses on the role of active subglacial lakes in determining how fast the West Antarctic ice sheet loses mass to the global ocean and influences global sea level changes. The importance of Antarctic subglacial lakes has only been recently recognized, and the lakes have been identified as high priority targets for scientific investigations because of their unknown contributions to ice sheet stability under future global warming scenarios. LISSARD has several primary science goals: A) To provide an observational basis for improving treatments of subglacial hydrological and mechanical processes in models of ice sheet mass balance and stability; B) To reconstruct the past history of ice stream stability by analyzing archives of past basal water and ice flow variability contained in subglacial sediments, porewater, lake water, and basal accreted ice; C) To provide background understanding of subglacial lake environments to benefit RAGES and GBASE (the other two components of the WISSARD project); and D) To synthesize data and concepts developed as part of this project to determine whether subglacial lakes play an important role in (de)stabilizing Antarctic ice sheets. We propose an unprecedented synthesis of approaches to studying ice sheet processes, including: (1) satellite remote sensing, (2) surface geophysics, (3) borehole observations and measurements and, (4) basal and subglacial sampling. INTELLECTUAL MERIT: The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recognized that the greatest uncertainties in assessing future global sea-level change stem from a poor understanding of ice sheet dynamics and ice sheet vulnerability to oceanic and atmospheric warming. Disintegration of the WAIS (West Antarctic Ice Sheet) alone would contribute 3-5 m to global sea-level rise, making WAIS a focus of scientific concern due to its potential susceptibility to internal or ocean-driven instability. The overall WISSARD project will test the overarching hypothesis that active water drainage connects various subglacial environments and exerts major control on ice sheet flow, geochemistry, metabolic and phylogenetic diversity, and biogeochemical transformations. BROADER IMPACTS: Societal Relevance: Global warming, melting of ice sheets and consequential sea-level rise are of high societal relevance. Science Resource Development: After a 9-year hiatus WISSARD will provide the US-science community with a renewed capability to access and study sub-ice sheet environments. Developing this technological infrastructure will benefit the broader science community and assets will be accessible for future use through the NSF-OPP drilling contractor. Furthermore, these projects will pioneer an approach implementing recommendations from the National Research Council committee on Principles of Environmental Stewardship for the Exploration and Study of Subglacial Environments (2007). Education and Outreach (E/O): These activities are grouped into four categories: i) increasing student participation in polar research by fully integrating them in our research programs; ii) introducing new investigators to the polar sciences by incorporating promising young investigators in our programs, iii) promotion of K-12 teaching and learning programs by incorporating various teachers and NSTA programs, and iv) reaching a larger public audience through such venues as popular science magazines, museum based activities and videography and documentary films. In summary, WISSARD will promote scientific exploration of Antarctica by conveying to the public the excitement of accessing and studying what may be some of the last unexplored aquatic environments on Earth, and which represent a potential analogue for extraterrestrial life habitats on Europa and Mars.