Collaborative Research: The Nature and Role of Chemical Weathering and Pedogenesis in Regional Landscape Development, Western Tornetrask Basin, Arctic Sweden

高纬度高山环境是世界上最脆弱的环境之一，但也是最不为人所知的环境之一。目前的全球环流模式预估高纬度地区的温度变化最大。然而，这种变化对当地和区域景观可能产生的后果尚不确定。本研究项目建立在一个单一山谷项目的概念、空间和时间维度上，以创建一个强大的地表化学风化和成土作用在景观发展中的区域模型。该研究将在瑞典西北部大约北纬68度，东经18度至19度之间的Tornetrask盆地西端加上两个支流山谷及其围脊进行。研究人员的目标是对景观发展进行全面的调查，认识到区域冰川历史的变化，并通过提供更详细的信息来为历史做出贡献。他们将使用宇宙起源定年法来发展冰川历史的信息，以及确定化学风化速率的基线数据。这些信息将与相邻沉积带的放射性碳定年相联系，以直接联系景观中相邻侵蚀和沉积元素的发展。在项目的这一阶段，研究人员将回收破碎的白云岩和花岗岩鹅卵石，以及埋藏的、机器抛光的白云岩、花岗岩和石灰岩圆盘，这些圆盘是五年前放置在野外的，以评估植被覆盖类型的风化微变变性。这些样品将使用微探针分析和扫描电子显微镜进行分析，并将与储存在附近现场站的对照样品进行比较。这个项目是一个长达十年的努力的一部分，旨在研究寒冷地区的风化和土壤发育过程。该项目将建立在先前对瑞典拉普兰北极/高山景观的化学风化和成土过程性质的调查基础上。这项工作将涵盖更广泛的岩性，并开始将过程研究与基岩表面和土壤的良好约束年龄控制相结合。该项目还为重建部分芬诺斯坎德冰盖的冰川历史提供了前景。该项目将继续发展与法国和瑞典研究人员的国际合作伙伴关系。

High-latitude alpine environments are among the most fragile in the world, but they are also among the least understood. Current global circulation models project the greatest temperature changes to occur in the high latitudes. The possibly consequences of this change on local and regional landscapes are uncertain, however. This research project builds in conceptual, spatial, and temporal dimensions on a single-valley project to create a robust regional model of the role of surficial chemical weathering and pedogenesis in landscape development. The study will take place the western end of the Tornetrask basin plus two tributary valleys and their confining ridges in northwestern Sweden at approximately 68-degress N and roughly between 18-degrees and 19-degrees E. The investigators aim to develop a comprehensive investigation of landscape development that recognizes variation in regional glacial history and will contribute to that history by providing more detailed information. They will use cosmogenic dating to develop information on glacial history as well as baseline data with which to determine rates of chemical weathering. This information will be linked to radiocarbon dating of abutting depositional zones to directly link development of adjacent erosional and depositional elements of the landscape. During this phase of the project, the investigators will retrieve crushed dolomite and granite pebbles and buried, machine-polished disks of dolomite, granite, and limestone that were placed in field sites five years earlier in order to assess weathering microvariability by vegetation cover type. These samples will be analyzed using microprobe analysis and scanning electron microscopy and will be compared with control samples that have been stored at a nearby field station.This project is part of a decade-long effort to examine the processes of weathering and soil development in a cold region. This project will build on previous investigations into the nature of chemical weathering and pedogenic processes in the Arctic/alpine landscape of Swedish Lapland. This effort will encompass a broader range of lithologies and start to couple the process studies with well-constrained age control of both bedrock surfaces and soils. The project also offers prospects for contributing to reconstruction of the glacial history of a portion of the Fennoscandian ice sheet. The project will continue development of international collaborative partnerships with French and Swedish researchers.