Collaborative Research: P2C2: Water Isotopes in Peat Mosses as Proxies for Understanding Climate and Atmospheric Circulation Changes in Southern Patagonia

该奖项授予利哈伊大学和布朗大学，将开发和测试一种强大的技术，利用泥炭苔藓中的两种水同位素重建大气环流模式和湿度轨迹。这项研究将产生重要的气候记录，可能会改变我们对南半球过去1000年气候动态的理解。这种方法也适用于该地理区域的较长时间尺度，以及其他可以找到藻苔的地方。来自尚未得到充分研究的南巴塔哥尼亚的新气候记录将为评估用于预测未来气候变化的气候模型提供基准数据集。该项目将培训两所大学的研究生和本科生在创新的跨学科研究中应用最先进的技术。该奖项将使用同位素记录来记录和理解过去一千年的气候和大气环流变化，使用一种新的双水同位素方法和系统的现代校准，这些校准来自巴塔哥尼亚最南端（南美洲南部）的泥炭沼泽中保存的单一物种泥炭苔藓（Sphagnum）。调查人员将对巴塔哥尼亚南部的大纬度和降水梯度进行校准采样和分析。同位素记录将来自利哈伊大学现有的泥炭岩心。除了使用纤维素和脂质中的氧和氢同位素时间序列进行常规？在古气候解释中，该团队将探索使用衍生的氘过量（三角洲过量）作为水分源区条件和水分轨迹的示踪剂。这种双同位素（O和D）的创新使用将提供有关过去大气环流和观测到的气候变化机制的有力信息。

This award to Lehigh and Brown Universities will develop and test a powerful technique to reconstruct atmospheric circulation patterns and moisture trajectories using two water isotopes from peat mosses. The research will generate important climate records that will potentially transform our understanding of climate dynamics of the last 1000 years in the relatively understudied southern hemisphere. This approach is also applicable over longer time scales in this geographic regions, as well as other places Sphagnum moss can be found. The new climate records from under-studied southern Patagonia will provide a benchmark data set with which to evaluate the climate models that are used for projecting future climate change. The project will train graduate and undergraduate students at both institutions in the application of a state-of-art technology in innovative interdisciplinary research. This award will use isotope records to document and understand climate and atmospheric circulation changes in the last millennium using a novel dual water isotope approach and systematic modern calibration from single species peat mosses (Sphagnum) as preserved in peat bogs in southernmost Patagonia (southern South America). The investigators will carry out calibration sampling and analysis to span large latitude and precipitation gradients in southern Patagonia. The isotope records will be derived from the existing peat cores at Lehigh University. In addition to using oxygen and hydrogen isotope time series from cellulose and lipids for ?conventional? paleoclimate interpretations, the team will explore the use of derived deuterium excess (delta-excess) as a tracer for moisture source region conditions and moisture trajectories. This innovative use of dual (O and D) isotopes would provide powerful information regarding past atmospheric circulation and mechanisms of observed climate changes.