EAR-PF: Developing early Holocene records of terrestrial climate in Baffin Bay to understand ice sheet response time to climate change

伊丽莎白·k·托马斯博士被授予美国国家科学基金会地球科学博士后奖学金，在马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校和纽约州立大学布法罗分校进行研究和推广。她将在格陵兰岛西部和巴芬岛东部重建全新世早期（7-1万年前）的气候变化，以更好地约束控制冰盖边缘变化的因素。了解冰盖对气候变化反应的速度和性质是科学界和公众利益的前沿，因为这是最先进的海平面上升预测的主要不确定性。托马斯博士的研究将在与人类相关的时间尺度上限制冰盖对气候变化的反应速度和性质，这对努力适应海平面上升的社区有直接好处。托马斯博士将通过指导本科生研究人员和在阿姆赫斯特，马萨诸塞州和布法罗，纽约州的社区开发外展项目来扩大地球科学的参与，这些社区人口众多，在地球科学中代表性不足。这两个群落都位于数千年前劳伦泰德冰盖沉积的特征附近，因此为了解冰盖和讨论科学家和社会今天面临的有关气候变化、冰盖和海平面上升的挑战提供了天然实验室。量化冰盖对气候变化的反应对于预测全球变暖的海平面上升至关重要。在全新世早期，劳伦泰德冰原和格陵兰冰原的巴芬湾板块可能是对9.3 ka和8.2 ka气候突变（10 ~ 100年）的响应而迅速而剧烈地移动。然而，巴芬湾地区早全新世年代际温度和降水变化特征尚不清楚，因此目前还不可能直接比较气候和冰盖重建。托马斯博士将使用保存在格陵兰岛和劳伦泰德冰盖边缘的湖泊沉积物中的有机化合物（支链甘油二烷基甘油四醚和叶蜡氢同位素）来重建十年尺度的温度和降水变化。然后，她将气候重建与冰盖重建进行比较，以阐明冰盖对气候变化的响应时间。

Dr. Elizabeth K. Thomas has been awarded an NSF Earth Sciences Postdoctoral Fellowship to conduct research and outreach at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and the State University of New York at Buffalo. She will reconstruct climate change of the early Holocene (7-10 thousand years ago) on western Greenland and eastern Baffin Island to better constrain the factors that control ice sheet margin change. Understanding the speed and nature of ice sheet response to climate change is at the forefront of the scientific community and public interest, as this is a major uncertainty of state-of-the-art sea level rise predictions. Dr. Thomas' research will place constraints on the speed and nature of ice sheet response to climate change on human-relevant timescales, with direct benefits to communities working to adapt to sea level rise. Dr. Thomas will broaden participation in Earth Sciences by mentoring undergraduate researchers and developing outreach programs in Amherst, MA and Buffalo, NY, communities with significant populations that are underrepresented in Earth Science. Both of these communities lie near features deposited by the Laurentide Ice Sheet thousands of years ago, and thus provide natural laboratories for learning about ice sheets and discussing challenges that scientists and society face today regarding climate change, ice sheets, and sea level rise.Quantifying ice sheet responses to climate change is critical for predicting sea level rise in a warming world. During the early Holocene, the Baffin Bay sectors of the Laurentide and Greenland ice sheets advanced rapidly and dramatically, likely in response to abrupt (10s to 100s of years) climate changes at 9.3 and 8.2 ka. The character of early Holocene decadal-scale temperature and precipitation changes in the Baffin Bay region remains unknown, however, so direct comparison of climate and ice sheet reconstructions currently is not possible. Dr. Thomas will use organic compounds (branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers and leaf wax hydrogen isotopes) preserved in lake sediments near the margins of the Greenland and Laurentide ice sheets to reconstruct decadal-scale temperature and precipitation changes. She will then compare the climate reconstructions to ice sheet reconstructions to elucidate ice sheet response time to climate change.