Collaborative Research: P2C2--Pleistocene/Holocene Climate Reconstruction from a Pamir High Resolution Deep Ice-Core

中亚的水资源高度依赖冰川融水。它的高山蕴藏着大量的冰川，季节性的融雪提供了该地区80%的淡水需求。然而，自20世纪60年代以来，中亚已经失去了超过14%的冰川覆盖面积和约18%的冰量。冰川补给水文系统的变化影响了这些地区的水资源供应和生物多样性。然而，这些观测只涵盖了该地区气候历史的一小部分。喜马拉雅高原冰川的冰芯保存了数千年气候变化的记录。了解这些记录中记录的自然变率对于解释该地区对现代和未来气候变化的脆弱性至关重要。该项目将从塔吉克斯坦帕米尔高原回收一个表层到基岩的冰芯，该冰芯将用于开发中亚全新世及以后气候变化的详细记录。这些结果将用于重建中亚气候的中度、突变和阈值变化的动态和速率。具体而言，研究小组将从冰芯中生成年度解析的多元地球化学记录（包括稳定同位素、微量元素、主要离子和尘埃颗粒），恢复花粉和其他生物物质，并将结果与冰芯和亚洲内陆的其他古记录进行比较。时序控制将建立与各种技术（层数，放射性碳，铍-10，铅-210，和氚）。该项目涉及与来自德国和日本的国际研究伙伴以及塔吉克斯坦地方政府部门的科学合作。来自两个美国机构的研究生将参与国际活动，其中包括实地考察，收集冰芯，跟进采样和合作访问。本项目由大气与地球空间科学部古气候项目、EPSCoR项目和国际科学与工程学部联合支持。

Central Asia is highly dependent on glacier meltwater for its water resources. Its high mountains hold great volumes of glacial ice, with seasonal snow melt supplying up to 80% of the region's fresh water needs. However, since the 1960s, central Asia has lost over 14% of its glacier covered area and ~18% of its ice volume. Changes in glacially-fed hydrologic systems impact water availability and biodiversity in these regions. However, these observations cover only a fraction of the climate history of this region. Ice cores from glaciers in the high Himalayas preserve records of millennia of climate changes. Understanding the natural variability recorded in such records is of critical importance for interpreting the vulnerability of the region to modern and future climate change.This project will recover a surface-to-bedrock ice core from the Pamir, Tajikistan, which will be used to develop detailed records of climate changes in central Asia during the Holocene and beyond. The results will be used to reconstruct the dynamics and rates of moderate, abrupt, and threshold changes in climate in Central Asia. Specifically, the research team will generate annually-resolved, multivariate geochemical records from the ice cores (including stable isotopes, trace elements, major ions, and dust particles), recover pollen and other biological materials, and compare the results with ice core and other paleo records from the interior of Asia. Chronological control will be established with a variety of techniques (layer counting, radiocarbon, beryllium-10, lead-210, and tritium). The project involves scientific collaboratio with international research partners from Germany and Japan as well as from local government departments in Tajikistan. Graduate students from two US institutions would be involved in the international activities, which will include both field expeditions to collect the ice cores and follow up sampling and collaboration visits.This project is jointly supported by the Paleoclimate Program of the Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, the EPSCoR program, and the Division of International Science and Engineering.