EAGER: Creating a Composite EL Nino Record from the Lowland Neotropics

该项目得到了探索性研究早期概念基金（EAGER）项目的支持，该项目旨在研究厄尔尼诺Niño南方涛动（ENSO）事件的各个方面。这些事件是全球年际气候变率的最大原因，并与极端变暖有关，导致全球温度急剧上升，随后不会出现回落。尽管ENSO在太平洋是气候强迫的，但与大西洋有很强的环境遥相关。从历史角度了解ENSO的频率和强度对于理解未来ENSO事件的威胁是不可或缺的。目前，对ENSO在变暖的世界中如何反应的建模预测并没有提供明确的科学理解。研究人员的目标是基于8个高分辨率的沉积记录，开发ENSO历史的综合记录，这些记录将产生从南美洲北部到过去5000年的ENSO变化记录。这些记录将与其他记录一起提供来自六个大陆湖泊的ENSO综合记录，其中包括来自加拉帕戈斯群岛的记录和来自秘鲁近岸海洋环境的记录。通过这种分析，研究小组的目标是减少依赖单一位点提供ENSO历史所引起的特异性。这是一个潜在的高风险和高回报的项目，因为它通过开发新的ENSO记录在智力价值方面开辟了新的领域。该项目具有极好的潜在广泛影响，因为挑战科学正统，寻求更好地理解控制大气动力学的基本大气物理学，对于解决一系列大气现象至关重要。该项目支持来自科学界代表性不足群体的早期职业博士学者，并促进与厄瓜多尔研究人员的有意义的国际合作。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。

This project is supported under the auspices of the EArly concept Grant for Exploratory Research (EAGER) program to investigate aspects of recurring El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events. These events are the largest cause of global interannual climate variability and are associated with extreme warmth causing dramatic increases in global temperature from which no subsequent retreat occurs. Although ENSO is climatically forced in the Pacific Ocean, there are strong environmental teleconnections with the Atlantic Ocean.Gaining a historical perspective on ENSO frequency and intensity is integral to understanding the threat from future ENSO events. Currently, modeling predictions of how ENSO would respond in a warmed world do not provide a clear scientific understanding.The researchers aim to develop a composite record of ENSO history based on eight highly resolved sedimentary records that will produce records of ENSO variability spanning the last 5000 years from northern South America. These records will be added to other records to provide a composite record of ENSO from six mainland lakes, including one record from the Galapagos Islands and one from a nearshore marine setting in Peru. Through this analysis, the research team aims to reduce idiosyncrasies induced by reliance on a single site to provide the history of ENSO.This is a potentially high-risk and high-reward project as it breaks new ground in Intellectual Merit by developing new ENSO records. The project has excellent potential Broader Impacts because challenging scientific orthodoxy and seeking to better understand fundamental atmospheric physics that governs atmospheric dynamics is critical to addressing a range of atmospheric phenomena. The project supports an early career doctoral scholar from an underrepresented group in science and also promotes meaningful international collaboration with researchers in Ecuador.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.