Tephrostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental studies in Yukon and Alaska: analogues for a future, warmer Artic

预计到下个世纪的全球变暖将在高纬度地区表现得最为强烈。这些地区对环境变化高度敏感，在全球气候系统中发挥着重要作用。由于与北极系统相关的复杂反馈以及对强迫的动力反应的可能性，预计变暖对高纬度地区的未来影响尚不清楚。测试预测变暖的可靠性的一种方法是开发古记录，记录过去气候持续变暖的条件(间冰期)对变暖的影响。拟议的研究重点是从阿拉斯加内陆、育空地区中部和北部的地点记录过去的气候温暖或比现在温暖。这项研究使我们能够记录并进一步发展该地区的远端火山灰(Tephra)记录，这使得能够识别大片地区的离散时间线，以便将地点之间的记录联系起来，并建立残留永久冻土和古环境记录的独立年龄。

Projected warming through the next century will be most strongly expressed at high latitudes. These areas are highly sensitive to environmental change and play an important role in the global climate system. Future impacts at high latitudes of projected warming are not well understood due to the complex feedbacks associated with the Arctic system and the potential for dynamical responses to forcing. One means to test the reliability of projected warming is to develop paleo-records which document the impacts of warming from past conditions (interglacials) when climate was warmer than present for sustained intervals. The proposed research focuses on establishing records of past climate as warm or warmer than present from sites in the interior of Alaska, central and northern Yukon Territory. This research makes us of, and further develops, the record of distal volcanic ash (tephra) in this region which allows discrete timelines over large areas to be identified in order to connect records between sites, and establish independent ages of relict permafrost and paleoenvironmental records.