Collaborative Research: Interactions between Holocene Lake Levels and Alluvial Fans in the Western U.S. in Response to Changing Climates

该项目的主要目标是开发一个完整的记录晚全新世水文变化和景观响应在美国西部，以了解最近的气候变化对景观过程的影响，从而提供一个模拟未来可能发生的情况下，不同的气候情景。这将通过整合四个不同盆地的晚全新世湖泊水位记录及其周围的冲积扇记录沿着在西部大盆地的450公里的南北样带。金字塔湖、温内穆卡湖、步行者湖和欧文斯湖周围凸起的海岸线反映了该地区水平衡的显著波动，并形成了极好的时间标记，可用于确定广阔地区冲积扇上洪水的时间、空间分布和类型。这些记录将通过海岸线和扇的额外年龄测定来增强，以进一步了解每个湖盆如何对全新世晚期微妙的气候波动作出反应，无论是在水平衡方面，还是在气候变化引起的洪水类型和频率方面，这项研究的更广泛影响范围从教育活动和广泛传播结果到地质灾害评估。与评估与河流洪水相关的灾害相比，在冲积扇上划定洪水灾害的科学相对不成熟。该项目将通过记录大片地区年轻冲积扇活动的时间、频率、类型、空间范围和原因，为灾害评估从业人员提供有关冲积扇洪水的重要信息。该项目将利用各种工具，包括地质测绘、地貌学、沉积学、地层学、地质年代学、火山灰年代学、遥感、和古气候分析，以制定一个区域综合水文变化和冲积扇活动在广泛的N-该项目的跨学科性质有助于教授学生第四纪地质学家使用的各种技能，将有助于两名研究生的教育，以及参与该项目的本科生研究助理和大约15-20名其他学生谁将在内华达州，里诺大学注册基于本研究的课程。研究结果将在两次或两次以上的专业会议上发表，并发表在至少两篇同行评审的期刊文章中。为了扩大受众，还将利用这些成果开发一个关于气候变化对地貌影响的教育模块，该模块将在大盆地古环境数据库网站（http：//www.dri.edu/gbped）上刊登。GBPED是一个可在谷歌地球上查看的可公开访问的资源，它提供了关于环境变化各个方面的科学论文摘要，沿着显示研究进行地点的标记。

The primary goal of this project is to develop an integrated record of late Holocene hydrologic change and landscape response in the western U.S. to understand the effects of recent climate changes on landscape processes, thereby providing an analog for what may happen in the future under different climate scenarios. This will be accomplished by integrating late Holocene lake-level records of four different basins with their surrounding alluvial fan records along a 450 km north-south transect in the western Great Basin. Raised shorelines surrounding Pyramid and Winnemucca lakes, Walker Lake, and Owens Lake reflect significant fluctuations in the water balance of the region and form excellent time markers that can be used to establish the timing, spatial distribution, and types of floods on alluvial fans across broad areas. These records will be augmented by additional age dating of shorelines and fans to further understand how each lake basin responded to subtle late Holocene climate fluctuations, both in terms of their water balance and the types and frequencies of floods caused by altered climate regimes.The broader impacts of this research range from educational activities and broad dissemination of results to geologic hazard assessment. The science of delineating flood hazards on alluvial fans is relatively immature compared to assessing hazards associated with river floods. This project will provide critical information on alluvial fan flooding to practitioners of hazard assessments by documenting the timing, frequency, style, spatial extent, and causes of young alluvial fan activity across large areas. The project will utilize a diverse set of tools including geologic mapping, geomorphology, sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochronology, tephrochronology, remote sensing, and paleoclimate analysis to develop a regional synthesis of hydrologic variability and alluvial fan activity across a broad N-S swath of the western U.S. The interdisciplinary nature of this project lends itself to teaching students a variety of skill sets used by Quaternary geologists and will contribute to the education of two graduate students, as well as undergraduate research assistants involved in the project and about 15-20 other students who will enroll in a course based on this research at University of Nevada, Reno. Results will be presented at two or more professional meetings and published in at least two peer-reviewed journal articles. To reach a broader audience, results will also be used to develop an educational module on the effects of climate change on the landscape that will be featured on the Great Basin Paleoenvironmental Database (GBPED) web site (http://www.dri.edu/gbped). The GBPED is a publicly accessible resource viewable in Google earth that provides abstracts of scientific papers on all aspects of environmental change along with place marks that show where the studies were conducted.