CAREER: The Last Glacial Termination in Interior Asia

结束上一次冰河时代的气候事件--被称为“最后一次冰川终结”--涉及最近地质历史上最严重的自然全球变暖。这也是工业时代之前大气二氧化碳最后一次大幅上升。因此，最后一次冰川终止是地球系统进行的一次壮观的自然实验，可以对其进行研究，以破译气候系统的潜在动力学及其对大气二氧化碳等强迫因素的敏感性。该项目旨在确定亚洲--地球上最大、人口最多的大陆--上一个冰河时代末期结束时，冰川消退和气候变暖的时间和速度。这项研究将有助于确定导致最后一次全球变暖的因素，并澄清大气二氧化碳在冰河时代气候循环中的作用。这项工作将为下一代科学家提供身临其境的、基于现场的和合作的教育体验。该项目将汇集一个研究团队，其中包括来自芝加哥南区的未被充分代表的高中生和STEM教师，来自美国、蒙古和中国的研究生和本科生，以及科学新闻学研究生。总体目标是建立和培育国际和跨文化的教育和科学伙伴关系，这种伙伴关系的持续时间远远超过该项目的持续时间。查明最后一次冰川终止的原因是地球和气候科学的一个主要目标，需要监测地球上最后一次冰川向间冰期转变的敏感古气候指标的详细年表。这项职业研究的目的是建立这样的年表，从亚洲中心开始，从上一个冰河时代的顶峰到今天的条件，减少山脉冰川的范围。冰川年表将基于对蒙古中纬度阿拉泰山脉和中国季风喜马拉雅东部冰川地貌的精确和准确的10Be地表暴露测年。冰川学建模将把这些冰川重建转换成冰川推断的大气温度的记录，然后将其与传入的太阳辐射、温室气体以及其他拟议的驱动因素的信号进行比较，以区分最后终止的可能原因。该项目将根据一项综合研究和教育计划执行，该计划实施了一项合作的实地学习战略，不同级别的学生通过相互教学进行学习。这个协作的、跨文化的、多国的和多代人的团队将分享该领域和整个科学过程中的知识和经验。这个团队将包括(1)缅因州大学的研究生和本科生，(2)来自蒙古和中国机构的学生和研究人员，(3)加里·科默学院预科学校的学生和科学教师？一所公立特许学校，致力于改善芝加哥南区未得到充分服务的少数族裔学生的生活；以及(4)梅迪尔新闻学院的嵌入式科学新闻学研究生，他们将制作出版和广播的故事，从而为公众记录科学成果。

The climate event that ended the last ice age - dubbed the "last glacial termination" - involved the greatest natural global warming of the recent geologic past. This was also the last time in which atmospheric CO2 rose by a substantial amount prior to the industrial period. The last glacial termination therefore represents a spectacular natural experiment played out by the Earth system that can be studied in order to decipher the underlying dynamics of the climate system and its sensitivity to forcing factors, such as atmospheric CO2. This project aims to determine when, and how rapidly, glaciers receded and the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age in the heart of Asia - Earth's largest and most populous continent. This research will help identify factors that produced this last great global warming, and to clarify the role of atmospheric CO2 in ice-age climate cycles. This work will provide immersive, field-based, and cooperative educational experiences for the next generation of scientists. The project will bring together a research team that includes underrepresented high-school students and STEM teachers from the South Side of Chicago, graduate and undergraduate students from the U.S.A., Mongolia, and China, and graduate students of science journalism. The overarching goal is to establish and nurture international and cross-cultural educational and scientific partnerships that are built to last well beyond the duration of this project.Identifying the causes of the last glacial termination is a major objective of the earth and climate sciences, and requires detailed chronologies of sensitive paleoclimate proxies that monitored the last glacial-to-interglacial transition across the planet. The purpose of this CAREER research is to develop such chronologies from the center of Asia for the reduction of mountain glacier extent from the peak of the last ice age to today's conditions. Glacier chronologies will be based on precise and accurate 10Be surface-exposure dating of glacial landforms in the mid-latitude Altai range of Mongolia and in the monsoonal eastern Himalaya of China. Glaciological modeling will convert these glacier reconstructions into records of glacier-inferred atmospheric temperature, which will in turn be compared with signatures of incoming solar radiation, greenhouse gases, as well as other proposed drivers, to discriminate among possible causes of the last termination. This project will be carried out following an integrated research and education plan that implements a cooperative, field-based learning strategy in which students at different levels learn by teaching each other. The collaborative, cross-cultural, multi-national, and multi-generational team will share knowledge and experiences in the field and throughout the scientific process. This team will consist of (1) graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Maine, (2) students and researchers from Mongolian and Chinese institutions, (3) students and science teachers from the Gary Comer College Preparatory school ? a public charter school devoted to improving the lives of underserved minority students from the South Side of Chicago, and (4) embedded science journalism graduate students from the Medill School of Journalism who will produce stories for publication and broadcast, thus documenting scientific outcomes for the public.