Role of dust, climate, and marine biota in glacial-interglacial CO2 cycles

南极冰芯记录记录了过去8个冰川周期（74万年）大气中二氧化碳的急剧变化。该研究计划的目标是通过调查灰尘输入，物理海洋学和海洋生物学之间的联系，更好地了解整个上一个完整的冰川-间冰期循环中控制海洋碳封存的过程。 具体研究目标是：（1）测量地表水分层变化（由于冰融化），尘埃输入和碳输出到海底，如过去14万年来在海洋沉积物中存档的那样，特别是在北太平洋;（2）建立一个全球古海洋学代用指标数据库，记录过去14万年来的生物通量和海洋特征，研究地球进入冰川期时物理、化学和生物变化的阶段性;（3）利用海洋地球化学模式结合这些新开发的环境数据库评估海洋生产力的主要控制过程（铁通量或分层）。沉积物分析和协作建模工作将阐明不同的水文和地球化学过程，影响大气中的二氧化碳，而地球进入和走出最后一个主要的冰川期，以及它们预计将如何影响固碳和大气中的二氧化碳在未来的气候变化。

Antarctic ice-core records document dramatic changes in atmospheric CO2 over the past 8 glacial cycles (740,000 years). The goal of this research program is to obtain a better understanding of the processes controlling carbon sequestration in the ocean throughout the last full glacial-interglacial cycle by investigating the linkages between dust input, physical oceanography, and marine biology. The specific research objectives are: (1) to measure changes in surface water stratification (due to ice melt), dust inputs, and carbon export to the seafloor as archived in marine sediments over the last 140,000 years, specifically in the North Pacific Ocean; (2) to develop a global database of paleoceanographic proxies that record biogenic fluxes and ocean characteristics over the past 140,000 years, in order to examine the phasing of physical, chemical, and biological changes as the earth enters a glaciation; and (3) to use a biogeochemistry model in concert with these newly-developed environmental databases to assess the dominant controlling processes (iron flux or stratification) on marine productivity. Sediment analyses and collaborative modeling work will elucidate the different hydrographic and geochemical processes that have affected atmospheric CO2 while the earth was entering into and coming out of the last major glacial period, and how they are expected to affect carbon sequestration and atmospheric CO2 in the face of future climate change.