A multi-proxy approach to characterizing hurricane-derived deposits in coastal and inland environments

该项目采用多代理方法，分别对受与飓风有关的风暴潮和河流洪水过程影响的沿海和内陆环境中的飓风沉积物进行定性。飓风可以影响一个地区，造成风暴潮洪水有关的沉积沿着海岸以及河流洪水在内陆地区由于强降水。描述和分析飓风引起的现今沿海和内陆沉积物沉积对于解释风暴沉积物的起源和了解不同环境背景下各种沉积过程的相对贡献至关重要。通过使用多个代理，这项研究提供了最近强烈的飓风在沿海和内陆环境中产生的风暴沉积物的准确描述。这项研究的结果为确定地质记录中的古代风暴沉积物提供了关键信息，这将在数百年和数千年的时间尺度上在环境变化的背景下推进对过去飓风活动的研究。 从这种对飓风影响的深入分析中可以得出社会效益，因为飓风活动的长期记录对于准确评估当前和未来沿海社区的风险至关重要。该项目还为少数民族服务机构的学生和教师提供教育和专业发展机会，其目标是评估2017年飓风玛丽亚路径沿着的主要沿海和陆地环境，并确定沿海风暴潮和内陆河流洪水沉积物的特征。这项研究确定了沿海和内陆环境中突出的飓风引起的沉积物沉积，揭示了不同地貌环境中风暴影响的严重程度和地理变化，从而提供了一个现代模拟，有助于在地质记录中寻找古代飓风的证据。将对从几个沿海泻湖和内陆湿地收集的短岩心进行年代学分析（使用Pb-210和Cs-137放射性同位素）、沉积学分析（使用烧失量和粒度分析）、地球化学分析（使用X射线荧光分析）和微体古生物学分析（使用有孔虫和孢粉学分析），以确定和描述"玛丽亚“飓风沉积物的特征。化学元素比率（如Cl/Br和Ca/Fe）和生物代用指标（特别是孢粉和有孔虫）将用于区分淡水泛滥与盐水入侵的影响，这代表了两种不同类型的环境影响。虽然这项研究项目将集中在波多黎各的飓风玛丽亚相关沉积物，但这项研究将为确定美国大陆其他强烈风暴对沿海和内陆环境的影响提供新的见解和方法，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project uses a multi-proxy approach to characterizing hurricane-derived deposits in coastal and inland environments impacted, respectively, by hurricane-related storm surge and river flooding processes. Hurricanes can impact a region by causing storm surge flooding related deposition along the coast as well as river flooding in inland areas due to heavy precipitation. Description and analysis of hurricane-induced present-day coastal and inland sediment deposits are vital for deciphering the origins of storm deposits and understanding the relative contribution of a variety of sedimentary processes in different environmental settings. By using multiple proxies, this study provides accurate descriptions of the storm deposits generated by a recent intense hurricane in both the coastal and inland environments. Results from this study provide critical information for identifying ancient storm deposits in the geological record, which advances the study of past hurricane activity in the context of environmental variability at timescales of centuries and millennia. From this analysis of hurricane impacts in deeper time societal benefits are derived because long-term records of hurricane activity are vital for accurate risk assessment for present and future coastal communities. The project also provides educational and professional development opportunities for students and faculty at a minority-serving institution.The objective of this project is to assess key coastal and terrestrial environments along the path of a recent hurricane, Hurricane Maria in 2017, and to identify and characterize its coastal storm surge and inland river flood deposits. This research identifies prominent hurricane-induced sediment deposition in coastal and interior environments that sheds light on the severity and geographical variation of storm impacts in different geomorphological settings, thus offering a modern analog that assists the search for the evidence of ancient hurricanes in the geological record. Short cores to be collected from a few coastal lagoons and inland wetlands will be analyzed chronologically (using Pb-210 and Cs-137 radioisotopes), sedimentologically (using loss-on-ignition and grain-size analyses), geochemically (using X-ray fluorescence analysis), and micropaleontologically (using foraminifera and palynological analyses) to identify and characterize the Hurricane Maria deposits. Chemical elemental ratios (such as Cl/Br and Ca/Fe) and biological proxies (especially palynomorphs and foraminifera) will be used to differentiate the effects of freshwater flooding versus saltwater intrusion that represent two different types of environmental impacts. Although this research project will focus on Hurricane Maria related deposits in Puerto Rico, the research will provide new insights and approaches for identifying the coastal and inland environmental impacts of other intense storms in the continental U.S., which helps society better prepare for these extreme events in the future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.