Collaborative Research: Full-Holocene Decadal-Scale Isotopic Paleoclimate Record from Speleothems, Oregon Coast Range

该项目将使用俄勒冈州西南部的洞穴化石，该地区受到来自太平洋的海洋气团的严重影响，以在北美西部开发新的创新的高分辨率记录。太平洋西北部现有的气候记录显示了年际到年代际的变化，但只跨越了过去的~500年，因此无法解决高频气候变化是否是较长时间间隔的持久特征。研究人员将通过从洞穴中获得十年尺度的记录来填补这一科学空白。他们的主要科学目标是记录全新世期间大气-海洋-陆地相互作用的耦合如何影响北美。该项目还将探索进入北美的北半球西风带纬度带全新世气候变化之间的联系，以及北大西洋和赤道太平洋等其他地区之间的联系。北大西洋似乎对太阳辐射的准周期强迫做出反应，赤道太平洋假设厄尔尼诺-南方涛动(ENSO)事件的频率和强度随着全新世地球轨道的逐渐变化而以复杂的方式发生变化。该项目产生的科学将有助于从近海站点开发太平洋西北部区域气候的高分辨率(十年制)记录。这些记录有望提高对过去气候变异性的理解，并加强对未来气候变化的预测。本科生、研究生和博士后学者将参与这项研究，从而提供一个极好的机会来参与和贡献一个新兴的研究领域的研究。这项研究的结果将被翻译成教育产品，供俄勒冈洞穴国家纪念碑的游客使用。

This project will use speleothems from southwestern Oregon, a region that is heavily influenced by maritime air masses emanating from the Pacific Ocean, to develop new and innovative high-resolution records in western North America. Available well-dated climate records from the Pacific Northwest show interannual-to-decadal variability but span only the last ~500 years and are thus unable to address whether high-frequency climate variability is a persistent feature over longer time intervals. The researchers will fill this science gap by obtain a decadal-scale records from speleothems. Their main scientific objective is to document how coupled atmosphere-ocean-terrestrial interactions have affected North America during the Holocene. The project will also explore linkages between Holocene climate variability in the latitude band of the northern hemisphere Westerlies where they enter North America, and other regions such as the North Atlantic, which appears to respond to quasi-periodic forcing by solar irradiance, and the equatorial Pacific, in which the frequency and intensity of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events are hypothesized to have changed in complex ways in response to gradual changes in Earth's orbit through the Holocene.The science resulting from this project will aid in the development of high-resolution (decadal) records of regional climate in the Pacific Northwest from a near-coastal site. These records are expected to improve understanding of past climate variability, and enhance projections of future climate change. Undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral scholars will be involved in this study thereby providing an excellent opportunity to participate and contribute to research in an emerging field of inquiry. The results of this research will be translated into educational products for visitors to Oregon Caves National Monument.