Collaborative Research: Constructing an Ultra-high Resolution Atmospheric Methane Record for the Last 140,000 Years from WAIS Divide Core.

Sowers0538538该奖项支持一个开发高分辨率(每50年)甲烷数据集的项目，该数据集将在制定西南极冰盖分水岭(WAIS Divde)地点正在钻探的新深冰芯的时间表方面发挥关键作用，并为比较格陵兰岛和WAIS分水岭的气候记录提供一个共同的地层框架。将以更高的分辨率测量某些关键间隔，以帮助准确确定南北半球之间气候突变的阶段。还建议同时分析过去110年WAIS分水岭和GISP2冰芯的一组样本，以建立半球间甲烷梯度，该梯度将用于确定与气候有关的甲烷排放变化的地理区域。还将利用压缩空气瓶和WAIS分离冰芯样品，对许多实验室进行大型气体测量内部校准。这项拟议工作的学术价值在于，它将提供所需的时间控制，以检查气候指标变化的时间，以及通过甲烷变化与格陵兰冰芯记录的关键时间联系。此外，该项目还解决了冰河时期哪些甲烷来源活跃的问题，并将有助于回答生物圈的哪个部分控制着过去的甲烷变化这一根本问题。拟议工作的更广泛影响是，它将直接惠及所有冰芯古气候研究，并将影响依赖冰芯时间尺度进行对比的古气候研究。该项目还将支持俄勒冈州立大学的一名博士生，他将有机会参与一项具有国际元素的重大新冰芯工作。宾夕法尼亚州立大学的本科生将获得宝贵的实验室经验，并全面参与该项目。拟议的工作将支持WAIS分水岭年表，这将是所有涉及核心的研究生项目的基础。国际间校准工作将加强四大洲研究机构之间的联系，并将作为国际极年研究议程的一部分进行。

Sowers0538538This award supports a project to develop a high-resolution (every 50 yr) methane data set that will play a pivotal role in developing the timescale for the new deep ice core being drilled at the West Antarctic Ice Sheet Divide (WAIS Divde) site as well as providing a common stratigraphic framework for comparing climate records from Greenland and WAIS Divide. Certain key intervals will be measured at even higher resolution to assist in precisely defining the phasing of abrupt climate change between the northern and southern hemispheres. Concurrent analysis of a suit of samples from both the WAIS Divide and GISP2 ice cores throughout the last 110kyr is also proposed, to establish the inter-hemispheric methane gradient which will be used to identify geographic areas responsible for the climate-related methane emission changes. A large gas measurement inter-calibration of numerous laboratories, utilizing both compressed air cylinders and WAIS Divide ice core samples, will also be performed. The intellectual merit of the proposed work is that it will provide the chronological control needed to examine the timing of changes in climate proxies, and critical chronological ties to the Greenland ice core records via methane variations. In addition, the project addresses the question of what methane sources were active during the ice age and will help to answer the fundamental question of what part of the biosphere controlled past methane variations. The broader impact of the proposed work is that it will directly benefit all ice core paleoclimate research and will impact the paleoclimate studies that rely on ice core timescales for correlation purposes. The project will also support a Ph.D. student at Oregon State University who will have the opportunity to be involved in a major new ice coring effort with international elements. Undergraduates at Penn State will gain valuable laboratory experience and participate fully in the project. The proposed work will underpin the WAIS Divide chronology, which will be fundamental to all graduate student projects that involve the core. The international inter-calibration effort will strengthen ties between research institutions on four continents and will be conducted as part of the International Polar Year research agenda.