RAPID: Geomorphic controls on sediment age, ice preservation, and carbon storage in arctic permafrost systems

调查人员将获得永久冻土岩心，由当地一家矿业公司在阿拉斯加中部收集，用于勘探目的，以便研究永久冻土的物理和地球化学稳定性，以及相关的碳储量，作为沉积物沉积和侵蚀的功能。这些岩心将捕捉到黄土覆盖基岩中具有不同黄土深度和下垫层特征的重复山坡样带。它们可以利用新的地球化学示踪剂在地层背景下的侵蚀速率和冰沉积年龄，量化碳、沉积物和冰动力学之间的反馈。研究人员的目的是了解永久冻土景观中碳的分布，这些景观的命运将有助于永久冻土融化时碳释放的潜在变暖反馈。该项目将支持来自历史上代表性不足的群体的调查人员。对这些岩心的研究将为永久冻土环境的地貌控制提供新的见解。了解地貌和地球化学景观遗产将告诉我们永久冻土变化的轨迹及其对环境扰动的恢复能力。除非下坡趋势和永久冻土山坡地层学与沉积物运输的速率和过程联系起来，否则无法完全了解这些环境中储存碳的来源和命运。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The investigators will obtain permafrost cores to be collected in central Alaska by a local mining company for exploration purposes, allowing study of the physical and geochemical stability of permafrost and associated stored carbon as a function of sediment deposition and erosion. These cores will capture repeated hillslope transects in loess mantled bedrock with variable loess depth and underlying colluvium character. They could enable quantification of feedbacks among carbon, sediment and ice dynamics using novel geochemical tracers of erosion rates and ice and sediment age in stratigraphic context. The investigators aim to inform the distribution of carbon in permafrost landscapes whose fate will contribute to the potential warming feedback with carbon release upon permafrost thaw. The project will support investigators from historically underrepresented groups.Study of these cores will provide novel insight on geomorphic controls in permafrost environments. Understanding geomorphic and geochemical landscape legacies will inform us of the trajectory of permafrost change and its resilience to environmental perturbations. Until downslope trends and permafrost hillslope stratigraphy are linked to rates and processes of sediment transport, the provenance and fate of stored carbon in these environments cannot be fully understood.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.