Collaborative Research: Climate Controls on Aerosol Fluxes to Taylor Dome and Taylor Glacier

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1246702/AciegoThis award supports a collaborative project to analyze ice from the Taylor Dome core and exposed ice from Taylor Glacier to measure variations in the isotopic composition of Strontium, Neodymium, and Hafnium, trace element concentrations, major anions and cations, and dust size data in order to assign provenance of dust within the ice. The intellectual merit of the proposed work is to provide provenance information that will be used to investigate the dust flux response to large, rapid regional and global (hemispheric) climate changes on a millenia scale. The first part of the work will focus on ice from the Taylor Dome core and then transition to surface ice from Taylor Glacier. The PIs will collect large-sized samples of known age based on the methane and oxygen isotope composition of the trapped gases; samples will be large enough to carry out measurements on different size fractions. Parallel work will be done to determine the radiogenic isotope values of southern hemisphere (New Zealand, Australia, South Africa) and local (Northern and Southern Victoria Land) dust source material that are potentially entrained and deposited across the Taylor Dome region. The broader impacts of this research encompass collaborative, outreach, educational, and diversity initiatives. The work will be an international collaboration with researchers at the University of Michigan, Ohio State University, Università Milano-Bicocca, and Università di Pisa, the latter two in Italy. Dissemination of research findings will include both scientific forums and public lectures. Funding will provide support for one PhD student, one MS student, and at least one undergraduate student. The project participants will be involved in the new UC Irvine American Indian Summer School in Earth System Science for high school students using this project as a jumping off point for discussing polar issues and climate change. This award has field work in Antarctica