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。她将重建格陵兰西部和巴芬岛东部全新世早期(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的反应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一个主要不确定性。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，为努力适应海平面上升的社区带来直接好处。托马斯博士将通过指导本科生研究人员并在马萨诸塞州阿默斯特和纽约州布法罗开发推广计划来扩大对地球科学的参与，这些社区拥有大量在地球科学中代表性不足的人口。这两个社区都位于数千年前Laurentide冰盖沉积的地物附近，因此为了解冰盖和讨论科学家和社会今天面临的气候变化、冰盖和海平面上升的挑战提供了自然实验室。量化冰盖对气候变化的响应对于预测全球变暖中的海平面上升至关重要。在全新世早期，劳伦蒂德冰盖和格陵兰冰盖的巴芬湾区段快速而戏剧性地推进，可能是对9.3和8.2ka的突然(10到100年)气候变化的反应。巴芬湾地区早期全新世十年尺度温度和降水变化的特征尚不清楚，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罗伦蒂岛冰盖边缘附近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，她将把气候重建与冰盖重建进行比较，以阐明冰盖对气候变化的反应时间。

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.