Collaborative Research: P2C2--Recent Northeastern United States Temperature Records in the Context of the Late Holocene

上个世纪以来，美国东北部经历了显着变暖（~1.1°C），近年来该地区各地创下了多项创纪录的高温。尽管该地区人口稠密，影响巨大，但我们并不完全了解这些趋势在多大程度上反映了辐射强迫与自然十年尺度变化的关系。古气候数据提供了在十年时间尺度上观察气候系统的机会，而仅通过仪器数据无法获得这些数据，但目前该地区没有长期尺度、高分辨率的代理温度数据，可以帮助辨别这些因素在确定十年温度趋势方面的相对影响。这项研究是伍兹霍尔海洋研究所和哥伦比亚大学拉蒙特-多尔蒂地球观测站的科学家们的合作成果，将利用活体和亚化石大西洋白雪松树，对美国东北部全新世晚期的温度进行年度解析重建。该物种对温度敏感，寿命长，在湿地环境中保存完好。由此产生的重建结果将用于表征从年际到千年的时间尺度上区域温度的变化，评估过去千年的气候模型模拟，并确定内部、远程和全球强迫对美国东北部气候的影响。该项目为美国东北部最近的季节性极端气温提供了长期背景，特别是沿海地区和高度城市化的波士顿至纽约走廊，那里的高温对公共卫生和生态系统产生了重要影响。资金支持博士生和本科生的学生研究，以及对关注环境的地区公民科学家和专业人士的公共宣传。

Over the last century, the northeastern United States has experienced significant warming (~1.1°C), and a number of record high temperatures have been set around the region in recent years. Despite the massive impacts given the dense populations in this region, we do not fully understand the extent to which the trends reflect radiative forcing versus natural decadal-scale variability. Paleoclimate data provide opportunities to observe the climate system at decadal time scales that are not available from instrumental data alone, but there are currently no long-timescale, high-resolution proxy temperature data from this region that might help discern the relative influence of these factors in determining decadal temperature trends. This research-- a collaborative effort between scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University-- will develop annually-resolved reconstructions of late Holocene temperature from the northeastern United States using living and subfossil Atlantic White Cedar trees. This species is temperature-sensitive, long-lived, and well-preserved in wetland environments. The resulting reconstructions will be used to characterize variability in regional temperatures at time scales from interannual to millennial, to evaluate climate model simulations over the last millennium, and identify the signature of internal, remote, and global forcing on the climate of the northeastern United States. The project provides long-term context for recent seasonal temperature extremes in the northeastern United States, and in particular along the coast and the very urbanized Boston-to-New York corridor, where high temperatures have important public health and ecosystem impacts. Funding supports student research at the doctoral and undergraduate level, as well as public outreach to regional citizen scientists and professionals focused on the environment.