The nature and timing of deglaciation and landscape response to abrupt climate change

冰川供养的流域覆盖了全球约26%的陆地表面，居住着全球近三分之一的人口。预测的全球气温上升意味着，了解未来冰川融化的潜在模式和速度是一个关键问题。可以从重建过去的冰块中提取了解融化速度的关键信息，该项目侧重于最后一次冰川间冰期过渡(LGIT；19-8 KYR BP)。对前英国和爱尔兰冰盖的重建集中在从近海最大冰川到今天的海岸线的冰消退的时间和速度上，以了解海洋终止冰川的冰川消融。然而，重建的精度较低(千年尺度)，并且没有处理陆地冰消退的时间。因此，有必要扩大我们对冰川消退在空间和时间上的理解，特别是通过开发与人类一生相关的(亚百年尺度)冰川消退重建。该项目将致力于利用3个具有战略意义的地点的多种年代学工具，开发可靠、精确和准确的不列颠北部冰川消融年表。它将利用沉积古DNA和XRF作为高分辨率古气候和古环境替代数据来评估景观对气候突变的响应速度。

Glacier-fed drainage basins cover ~26% of global land surface populated by nearly one third of global population. Predicted increases in global temperatures means that understanding the potential patterns and rates of future glacier melt is a key concern. Critical information to understand rates of melt can be extracted from reconstructions of past ice masses with this project focusing on the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT; 19 - 8 kyr BP). Reconstructions of the former British and Irish Ice Sheet have concentrated on the timing and rates of ice retreat from offshore maxima to the present-day coastline to understand deglaciation in marine terminating glaciers. However, the reconstructions have low precision (millennial scale) and do not deal with the timing of terrestrial ice retreat. Therefore, there is a need to extend our understanding of this deglaciation in both a spatial and temporal sense, particularly by developing human lifetime relevant (sub-centennial scale) reconstructions of ice retreat. This project will aim to develop robust, precise and accurate chronologies of the deglaciation of Northern Britain during the LGIT using multiple chronological tools from 3 strategically located sites. It will assess the rate of landscape response to abrupt climate change by using sedimentary ancient DNA and XRF as high resolution palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental proxy data.