Collaborative Research: Defining the role of heterogeneous lithology in bedrock incision and terrace formation in the Buffalo National River, Arkansas

这项研究将有助于了解低地形环境中的景观如何响应基准面（即海平面）的变化。 这些过程是解释沉积物储存和侵蚀的空间和时间变化的核心，并对理解土壤流失、土壤和洪泛区中的污染物固存以及长期洪水衰减产生影响。 研究结果还将有助于重建北美大陆中部的地球表面变化，这可以提供欧洲之前人类景观的基线信息，从而了解现代人类影响的背景，从而指导恢复和管理。和地理信息系统，我们将调查在地貌上的岩性变化对河流过程的影响，特别是岩性如何影响基岩山谷和不成对的阶地形成的未解决的问题。 该项目旨在汇集在不同尺度的过程的理解，以确定在一个大陆中部设置南部的冰川限制河流切割的驱动程序，并确定是否切口的布法罗国家河谷已被驱动气候变化，基准面下降，当地的过程中运行的曲流规模，或其组合。 这项工作的成果将改善过去景观的重建，包括北美冰川界限以南的水文循环变化，基岩河流如何随时间变化，以及沉积记录如何在洞穴和冲积阶地中创建和保存。

This research will contribute to understanding how landscapes in low topography settings respond to changes in base level (i.e. sea level). These processes are central to interpreting spatial and temporal variation in sediment storage and erosion and have implications for understanding soil loss, pollutant sequestration in soils and floodplains, and flood attenuation over long timescales. The results will also facilitate reconstructions of the changes in the Earth's surface in the mid-continent of North America which can provide baseline information from pre-European human landscapes with which to contextualize modern human impacts and thus guide restoration and management.Through the use of geochronology, field observation, topographic analysis, and GIS we will investigate unresolved problems in geomorphology regarding the impact of variations in lithology on fluvial processes, specifically how lithology impacts bedrock valley and unpaired terrace formation. This project seeks to bring together understanding of processes at variable scales to determine the drivers of river incision in a mid-continent setting south of the glacial limit and to determine whether incision of the Buffalo National River valley has been driven by climate change, base level fall, local processes operating at the scale of the meander, or a combination thereof. The outcomes of this work will improve reconstructions of past landscapes including changes in the hydrologic cycle south of the glacial limit in North America, how bedrock rivers change over time, and how the sedimentary record is created and preserved in caves and alluvial terraces.