Assessing Wind-driven Circulation Variability in the Subtropical N. Atlantic Using an Array of Archived Radiocarbon Records

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。在北大西洋，赤道热量的向极输送是由大西洋经向翻转环流和副热带环流（STC）促进的。 海洋学数据的短仪器记录表明了这两种机制的输送平衡的变化，但这些变化是否反映了气候系统的周期或趋势的问题仍然没有得到解决，因为这些记录的长度很短。 这项研究分析了存储在热带大西洋各地珊瑚和硬海绵骨骼中的放射性碳（14 C）记录，以限制过去世纪及以后STC的变化。 从这些骨骼档案已采取的位置，使地球化学古海洋学数据，丰富的时间范围，但空间稀疏，以帮助解释短仪器记录的独特机会。这项研究的结果将不仅古海洋学家和古气候学家感兴趣，而且气候建模谁可能旨在使用数值模拟空间插值记录从这个项目。该奖项支持研究生助理和早期职业PI。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).In the North Atlantic Ocean, poleward transport of equatorial heat is facilitated by both the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and the Subtropical Cells (STCs). Changes in the transport balance of these two mechanisms have been suggested by the short instrumental record of oceanographic data, but questions about whether these changes reflect cycles or trends in the climate system remain unaddressed by the short length of these records. This research analyzes radiocarbon (14C) records stored in the skeletons of corals and sclerosponges from a variety of locations across the tropical Atlantic to constrain changes in the STCs over the past century and beyond. The locations from which these skeletal archives have been taken enable a unique opportunity for geochemical paleoceanographic data, rich in temporal extent but spatially sparse, to aid in the interpretation of the short instrumental record. Results from this study will be of interest not only to paleo-oceanographers and paleoclimatologists, but also to climate modelers who may aim to use numeric simulations to spatially interpolate the records resulting from this project. This award supports a graduate research assistant and an early career PI.