4,500 years of Hydrologic Variability from Zaca Lake, close to the Santa Barbara Basin

提供资金，以开发一个高分辨率（十年或更好），多代理气候记录跨越过去4000年的沉积物的Zaca湖，圣巴巴拉县，加州。研究人员使用了一套方法，包括分子同位素分析（即水生和陆生生物标志物中的D/H比值），生物分析（包括木炭计数）和物理沉积物分析（包括粒度）。其目标是重建气候变化（干旱和多雨）的性质和频率、洪水事件地层学以及气候变化下降水和集水水文学的变化。扎卡湖记录的区域和全球气候记录和强迫的相关性被用来探索驱动这些变化的机制。特别是，Zaca湖与圣巴巴拉盆地的邻近性使得这一新的高分辨率陆地记录能够与50公里内的高分辨率海洋记录进行比较。更广泛的影响包括南加州大学和加州州立大学富勒顿分校之间的跨机构合作（在全国授予少数民族学生学士学位的数量中排名第五），支持一位新的女研究员，以及在这两个机构培养两名研究生和多名本科生。Zaca湖提供了一个难得的机会，否则湖泊贫困的南加州重建的频率和严重程度，过去的洪水和干旱超出了历史时期，在这个水资源紧张，人口众多的地区的危害和水管理决策的相关性的调查结果。

Funding is provided to develop a high-resolution (decadal or better), multi-proxy climate record spanning the past 4 millennia from the sediments of Zaca Lake, Santa Barbara County, California. The researchers use a suite of approaches including molecular isotopic analyses (i.e. D/H ratios in aquatic and terrestrial biomarkers), biological analyses (including charcoal counts), and physical sediment analyses (including grain size). The goals are to reconstruct the nature and frequency of climate variability (droughts and pluvials), flood event stratigraphy and changes in precipitation and catchment hydrology under changing climate. Correlation of the Zaca Lake record to regional and global climate records and forcings are used to explore the mechanisms driving these changes. In particular, the proximity of Zaca Lake to the Santa Barbara Basin enables comparison of this new high-resolution terrestrial record to a high-resolution marine record within 50km.The broader impacts include cross-institutional collaboration between University of Southern California and California State University at Fullerton (#5 in the nation for the number of bachelor's degrees awarded to minority students), support for a new female researcher, and the training of two graduate students and multiple undergraduate students at both institutions. Zaca Lake provides a rare opportunity in otherwise lake-poor Southern California to reconstruct the frequency and severity of past floods and droughts beyond the historical period, with findings of relevance to hazard and water management decisions in this water-stressed and highly populous region.