Physical and Biotic Evidence of Glacial Ice and Climate in the Cordillera Central, Dominican Republic

这项研究考察了多米尼加共和国高原的古生态、古气候和地貌，并对该地区曾经被冰川覆盖的说法做出了回应。解决围绕这一主张的争议将提供对热带大西洋地区古气候环流的深入了解，以及校准全球变化情景的经验证据。广泛的实地和实验室技术将导致对热带东加勒比更新世冰川作用的若干假设进行检验。将采用一系列技术，包括取心、挖沟、直径裂片取样、花粉分析以及石英颗粒微观结构和直径微观形态的定量分析。研究人员以前在该地区进行了试点研究，拟议的工作是早期研究的合理和必要的延续。研究人员希望找到冰期晚期古生态和气候的证据，并将岛屿年代学与新热带大陆进行比较。研究结果对古生态学（特别是植被动力学）和古气候动力学具有重要意义。

The study examines the paleoecology, paleoclimate, and geomorphology of the highlands in the Dominican Republic, and it responds to suggestions that this area was once glaciated. Resolution of the controversy surrounding this assertion will provide insight into paleoclimatic circulation in the tropical Atlantic region as well as empirical evidence for calibration of global change scenarios. Extensive field and laboratory techniques will lead to the testing of several hypotheses about the Pleistocene glaciation in the tropical eastern Caribbean. A range of techniques will be employed including coring, trenching, sampling of diamicton lobes, pollen analysis, and quantitative analysis of quartz grain microtextures and diamicton micromorphology. The researchers have conducted pilot studies in the region previously and the proposed work is a logical and necessary continuation of that earlier research. The investigators hope to find evidence of late-glacial paleoecology and climate and to compare island chronology with the neotropical mainland. The results will be important to paleoecology (vegetation dynamics in particular) and to paleoclimate dynamics.