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普通观众准备的展品，并在齐曼安佩索塞国家公园正在建设的一座不起眼的博物馆中展示。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，并有助于提高公众对公园自然历史和生物多样性的认识。该项目将涉及几名马达加斯加科学家，包括对一名博士生和博士后学者的指导。该项目还将支持麻省理工学院和马萨诸塞州大学本科生的研究和实验室体验。最后，更好地理解年代际气候变化的原因将有助于对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水的潜在变化提供洞察。研究的目的是：1)调查过去2000年来降水的亚十年到年度分辨率变化，并确定马达加斯加降水与印度洋纬向模式、厄尔尼诺-南方涛动(ENSO)和其他年际和年代际气候变化的驱动因素之间的关系；2)调查气候、地貌演变和马达加斯加地方性大型动物在全新世晚期消失之间的关系；3)调查南半球印度洋季风千年和轨道尺度变化的时间和性质，并确定其与北半球季风变化和东非气候变化的关系。本项目旨在利用马达加斯加两个地点洞穴的洞穴洞穴来重建晚更新世和全新世的气候和景观演变。从马达加斯加西北部和西南部采集的石笋上测量的洞穴三角洲18氧和锶/钙和镁/钙微量元素比值的高分辨率时间序列将被用来重建过去的降水变化。洞穴三角洲13碳测量将被用作森林和草原之间景观演变的替代指标。精确的年龄模型将使用230个钍/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.