The Oxygen and Hydrogen Isotopic Composition of Pleistocene Sea Water

PI建议通过直接测量冰河时期生长的珊瑚骨架中捕获的海水的同位素组成来确定最后一个冰河时期海水的氧同位素组成。了解冰河时代海洋的氧同位素组成是很重要的，因为它是大陆冰川冰量的函数。现在只能估计冰的体积，因为确定冰期同位素值的唯一方法是测量有孔虫化石中的碳酸盐的值；然而，测量值将受到有孔虫生活的地方的冰量和海洋温度的影响。PI建议测量从冰河时期珊瑚中提取的海水的同位素值，这样就不必根据一些可能不准确的假设来估计该值。在确定和消除冰体积效应后，这些结果对于从有孔虫碳酸盐中确定冰河时代海洋的温度具有重要意义。

The PI proposes to determine the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater during the last ice age by directly measuring the isotopic composition of seawater trapped in the skeleton of corals which grew during the ice age. The oxygen isotopic composition of the ice-age ocean is important to know because it is a function of the ice volume of the continental glaciers. That ice volume can only be estimated now because the only way to determine the ice-age isotopic value is to measure the value in the carbonate from fossil foraminifera; the measured value, however, will be affected by both ice volume and the temperature of the ocean in the place where the foraminifera lived. The PI proposes to measure the isotopic value of seawater extracted from ice-age coral so that it will not be necessary to estimate the value based on some assumptions which may not be accurate. The results would be important for determining the temperature of the ice-age ocean from foraminiferal carbonate after the ice volume effect is determined and removed.