Collaborative Research: High Resolution Records of Holocene Climate Change, Drought Variability and Monsoon Behavior from the Uinta Mountains of Utah

该奖项资助根据犹他州乌塔山(Uinta Mountain，UM)湖泊沉积物中保存的水文条件和环境温度的化石生物和地球化学指标，开发过去10,000年来数百年干旱事件的记录。这些记录可以通过研究季风向北移动与全新世早期至中期北大西洋海面温度变化的联系，增加科学界对造成密歇根大学干旱的气候强迫机制的了解。研究人员已经收集了几个湖泊的表层沉积物和环境数据，这些湖泊跨越了目前夏季季风降水显著的北部界限，海拔1000米。硅藻和摇摆体--温度、比电导率和深度的推断模型将从这些地点和其他地点开发出来。湖泊沉积物纤维素的同位素分析将提供有关降水来源的信息。这项研究旨在开发一个易受干旱影响的地区的古气候数据和时间序列，该地区的人口正变得越来越密集。这些信息将对广泛的古气候研究人员和水资源规划者有价值，因为他们正在努力了解犹他州和科罗拉多河流域上游其他地区的自然气候变异性及其对环境的影响。

This award funds the development of records of multi-centennial drought events over the past 10,000 years from fossil biotic and geochemical indicators of hydrological conditions and environmental temperatures preserved in Uinta Mountain (UM), Utah lake sediments. These records could increase the science community's understanding of climate-forcing mechanisms causing droughts in the UM by examining links with North Atlantic sea surface temperature variations during the early to mid-Holocene due to northward displacement of the monsoon. The researchers have already collected surface sediments and environmental data from several lakes spanning 1,000 meters of elevation across the current northern limits of significant summer monsoonal precipitation. Diatom and chironomid-inference models for temperature, specific conductivity, and depth will be developed from these and other sites. Isotopic analysis of lake sediment cellulose will provide information on the source of precipitation. The research aims to develop paleoclimate data and time series from a region susceptible to drought that is becoming densely populated. This information will be of value to a broad spectrum of paleoclimate researchers and water resource planners as they struggle to understand natural climate variability and its environmental impact in Utah and other parts of the Upper Colorado River Basin.