Collaborative Research: P2C2--Madagascar Caves and Paleoclimate (MADCAP), Investigating Climate Variability in the Southern Hemisphere of the Western Indian Ocean

该项目将制作教育材料和为一般观众准备的展品，并在Tsimanampetsotse国家公园目前正在建造的一个不大的博物馆中展出。这些展览将揭示对石笋的研究如何帮助揭示马达加斯加的气候和植被历史，并将帮助提高公众对公园自然历史和生物多样性的认识。该项目将涉及几位马达加斯加科学家，并包括对一名博士生和博士后学者的指导。该项目还将为麻省理工学院和麻省理工学院的本科生提供研究和实验室体验。最后，更好地了解十年尺度气候变率的原因将有助于深入了解一个在年际时间尺度上经历严重干旱和洪水的国家未来降雨量的潜在变化。研究的目的是：1)研究近2000年降水的次年代际至年分辨率变化，确定马达加斯加降水与印度洋纬向模态、厄尔尼诺-南方涛动（ENSO）以及其他年际和年代际尺度气候变率驱动因素之间的关系；2)研究全新世晚期马达加斯加特有巨型动物灭绝与气候、景观演变的关系；3)研究南半球印度洋季风千禧年和轨道尺度变率的时间和性质，并确定其与北半球季风变率和东非气候变化的关系。该项目旨在利用马达加斯加两个地点的洞穴化石，重建晚更新世和全新世的气候和景观演变。在马达加斯加西北部和西南部采集的石笋上测量的高分辨率时间序列δ 18-氧和锶/钙和镁/钙微量元素比值将用于重建过去的降水变化。Speleothem三角洲13-碳测量将被用作森林和草地之间景观演变的代理。精确的年龄模型将使用230钍/铀来构建。

The project will produce educational materials and exhibits prepared for a general audience and displayed in a modest museum now under construction at Tsimanampetsotse National Park. The displays will reveal how research with stalagmites helps uncover the climate and vegetation history of Madagascar and will help heighten public awareness of the Park's natural history and biodiversity. This project will involve several Malagasy scientists and includes mentoring for a doctoral student and post-doctoral scholar. The project will also support research and laboratory experiences for undergraduates at both MIT and UMass. Finally, a better understanding of the causes of decadal-scale climate variability will help in providing insights into potential future changes in rainfall in a country that experiences severe drought and flooding on inter-annual time scales.The aims of the research are: 1) to investigate sub-decadal to annual resolution changes in precipitation over the past 2,000 years and determine the relationships between precipitation in Madagascar and variability in the Indian Ocean Zonal Mode, El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and other drivers of inter-annual and decadal-scale climate variability; 2) investigate the relationships between climate, landscape evolution and the disappearance of Madagascar's endemic megafauna in the Late Holocene; and 3) investigate the timing and nature of millennial and orbital scale variability in the Indian Ocean Monsoon in the Southern Hemisphere and determine how it relates to Northern Hemisphere Monsoon variability and climate changes in East Africa.This project aims to use speleothems from caves at two locations in Madagascar to reconstruct climate and landscape evolution in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. High-resolution time series of speleothem delta 18-Oxygen and Strontium/Calcium and Magnesium/Calcium trace element ratios measured on stalagmites collected from northwest and southwest Madagascar will be used to reconstruct past changes in precipitation. Speleothem delta 13-Carbon measurements will be used as a proxy for the evolution of the landscape between forest and grassland. Precise age models will be constructed using 230 Thorium/Uranium.