RII Track-4: NSF: Building Linkages: Assessing the Importance of Terrestrial Climate in Deglacial Ice Sheet Dynamics through Collaborative Research Capacity Building

RII Track-4：NSF：建立联系：通过合作研究能力建设评估陆地气候在冰消冰盖动力学中的重要性

• 批准号: 2229696
• 负责人: Simon Pendleton
• 金额: $ 13.9万
• 依托单位: Plymouth State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-01-15 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2229696&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RII; Track; NSF; Building; Linkages

As the world’s climate continues to warm, it is increasingly important to understand how the melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will contribute to sea level rise. Specifically, as the ice sheets retreat over land, it becomes imperative to understand the role local climate has on the melting of ice sheet margins. Thus, the goals of this project are threefold. Initially, the researcher will reconstruct records of past climate (temperature and precipitation) in New England. The reconstructed past climate will be from approximately 13,000 years ago when a large ice sheet was retreating under analogous warming conditions. To accomplish this, the research team will analyze organic molecules from plants and bacteria left behind in lake sediments and whose form and composition reflect past changes in temperature and precipitation. Second, the PI will compare these new high-resolution climate records to existing records of changes in ice sheet margin activity to elucidate the role of local climate on the melting and retreat of large ice sheets. Understanding how local climate impacted the melting of past ice sheets will help forecast how continued climate change will drive melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets. Better understanding and predictions of melting ice sheet contributions to sea level rise are vital in helping coastal areas worldwide to prepare for and mitigate associated consequences. The third and final goal of the project includes capacity building at a small rural institution and research experience for undergraduate students, helping to prepare the next generation of earth and climate scientists.This Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-4 EPSCoR Research Fellows (RII Track-4:NSF) project would provide a fellowship to a Teaching Faculty member and training for an undergraduate student at Plymouth State University. This work would be conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder. The world's ice sheets are projected to continue to shrink under future warming conditions, with potentially wide-ranging and catastrophic global consequences. However, the role of terrestrial climate change on ice sheet fluctuations, especially during times of ice margin retreat, remains poorly understood. While changes in ice sheet mass balance and ice dynamics are known to drive ice-margin fluctuations on millennial to multi-millennial timescales, it is hypothesized that more local, terrestrial climate plays a significant role in shorter timescale ice margin fluctuations. A better understanding of the impact of local climate on past ice margin behavior is necessary to understand how modern ice sheet margins will respond to continued climate change. The researcher will pilot the generation of new, high-resolution temperature and hydroclimate records following the deglaciation of the northeastern United States by the Laurentide Ice Sheet following the Last Glacial Maximum. Temperature and hydroclimate will be reconstructed using branched glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (brGDGTs) and the hydrogen isotopic composition (δ2H) of precipitation from preserved leaf waxes, respectively, using sediment cores (in-hand and to-be-collected) from central New England. The researcher will accomplish this through extended visits to two laboratory facilities at the University of Colorado Boulder and in collaboration with their PIs and staff. These new records will be compared to the existing North American Varve Chronology which contains a detailed record of LIS retreat and ice margin fluctuations through the study area.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.

随着全球气候持续变暖，了解格陵兰岛和南极冰盖融化将如何导致海平面上升变得越来越重要。具体来说，随着冰盖在陆地上的退缩，了解当地气候对冰盖边缘融化的作用变得势在必行。因此，这个项目的目标是三重的。首先，研究人员将重建新英格兰过去气候（温度和降水）的记录。重建的过去气候将来自大约13000年前，当时一个大冰盖在类似的变暖条件下退缩。为了实现这一目标，研究小组将分析湖泊沉积物中遗留的植物和细菌的有机分子，这些有机分子的形式和组成反映了过去温度和降水的变化。其次，PI将把这些新的高分辨率气候记录与现有的冰盖边缘活动变化记录进行比较，以阐明当地气候对大冰盖融化和退缩的作用。了解当地气候如何影响过去冰盖的融化，将有助于预测持续的气候变化将如何推动格陵兰岛和南极冰盖的融化。更好地了解和预测冰盖融化对海平面上升的影响，对于帮助全球沿海地区做好准备并减轻相关后果至关重要。该项目的第三个也是最后一个目标包括在一个小型农村机构进行能力建设，并为本科生提供研究经验，帮助培养下一代地球和气候科学家。这项研究基础设施改善轨道4 EPSCoR研究人员（RII轨道4:NSF）项目将为普利茅斯州立大学的一名教师提供奖学金，并为一名本科生提供培训。这项工作将与科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的研究人员合作进行。预计在未来变暖的条件下，世界冰盖将继续缩小，可能带来广泛和灾难性的全球后果。然而，陆地气候变化对冰盖波动的作用，特别是在冰缘退缩期间的作用，仍然知之甚少。虽然已知冰盖质量平衡和冰动力的变化会驱动千年至千年时间尺度上的冰缘波动，但假设更局地的陆地气候在较短时间尺度上的冰缘波动中起重要作用。更好地了解当地气候对过去冰架边缘行为的影响对于理解现代冰架边缘如何对持续的气候变化作出反应是必要的。该研究人员将在末次盛冰期后美国东北部劳伦泰德冰原脱冰后，进行新的高分辨率温度和水文气候记录的试点工作。温度和水文气候将分别使用支链甘油二烷基甘油四醚（brGDGTs）和保存的叶蜡降水的氢同位素组成（δ2H）进行重建，并使用新英格兰中部的沉积物岩心（现有的和待收集的）。研究人员将通过延长访问科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的两个实验室设施，并与他们的pi和工作人员合作来实现这一目标。这些新记录将与现有的北美Varve年表进行比较，后者包含了研究区域内LIS退缩和冰缘波动的详细记录。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。