Collaborative Research ETBC: Peatlands as Carbon and Water Sinks under Warm Climates in the Susitna Basin, South-Central Alaska

合作研究ETBC：泥炭地作为碳和水在温暖的气候下在Susitna盆地，阿拉斯加中南部。 阿拉斯加和其他地方的冰川正在融化，冰川融水可能会引起水文和泥炭地生态系统功能的深刻变化。但是，我们不？我们不知道融水在区域尺度上的影响程度和机制，也不知道泥炭地碳和水储存变化的潜在反馈。该提案旨在评估气候引起的冰川融化加速了阿拉斯加中南部Susitna山谷泥炭地的横向扩张和垂直增长的假设。这个跨学科的项目将记录泥炭地的时间和空间变化，在区域范围内，在过去的1000年里，使用现场监测（年际分辨率），遥感（十年分辨率）和古生态（十年至百年分辨率）技术在成对的冰川和非冰川流域的Susitna盆地。我们将使用现代生态和水文监测和地球化学示踪剂来了解泥炭地动态与气候和水文持续变化之间的联系。我们将重建泥炭地水分和C积累的历史，以评估泥炭地的小冰期和中世纪温暖期（过去的冰川前进和后退事件）的响应。更广泛的影响。 该项目将汇集来自生态学和古生态学、水文气候学和低温地球化学、遥感和冰雪科学等不同领域的4名初级研究人员，研究长期生态系统发展和当代生态和水文动力学。 该项目将启动它们之间的合作和互动，将新的想法和多学科工具汇集在一起，在高纬度和高海拔地区开展全球变化科学。 该项目将包括研究生的跨学科培训和利哈伊和俄亥俄州州立大学本科生的研究经验。俄勒冈州立大学伯德极地研究中心的一位教育专家将利用该项目的成果制定一项创新的推广计划，以改善向初中和高中教师提供气候变化信息的情况。 此外，该项目将为哥伦布动物园的一个新的极地边境展览（以阿拉斯加边境为特色）提供材料。这项研究的结果将为理解气候变化，冰川动力学，水文学和生态系统在不断变化的世界中的联系提供有价值的见解。该项目将促进水文科学、生态系统研究、地球生物学和低温地球化学等学科领域的发展。此外，该项目值得ETBC（生物地球化学循环新兴主题）的支持，因为它体现了跨学科研究，重点是在一系列时间和空间尺度上对气候-水-碳动力学和物理-化学-生物过程的串联调查。

Collaborative Research ETBC: Peatlands as Carbon and Water Sinks under Warm Climates in the Susitna Basin, South-Central AlaskaIntellectual Merits. Glaciers in Alaska and elsewhere are melting, and glacier meltwater likely induces profound changes in hydrology and the functions of peatland ecosystems. However, we don?t know the magnitude and mechanisms of meltwater impacts at a regional scale nor potential feedbacks from the resulting changes in peatland carbon and water storage. This proposal intends to evaluate the hypothesis that climate-induced glacier melting has accelerated the lateral expansion and vertical growth of peatlands in the Susitna Valley of south-central Alaska. This interdisciplinary project will document temporal and spatial changes in peatlands at a regional scale over the last 1000 years using field monitoring (interannual resolution), remote sensing (decadal resolution) and paleoecological (decadal to centennial resolution) techniques in paired glacierized and non-glacierized watersheds of the Susitna Basin. We will use modern ecological and hydrological monitoring and geochemical tracers to understand the connection between peatland dynamics and ongoing changes in climate and hydrology. We will reconstruct peatland moisture and C accumulation history to evaluate peatland responses to the Little Ice Age and Medieval Warm Period (past glacier advance and retreat events). Broader Impacts. This project will bring together 4 junior researchers from diverse fields of ecology and paleoecology, hydroclimatology and low-temperature geochemistry, and remote sensing and ice/snow science to study both long-term ecosystem development and contemporary ecological and hydrologic dynamics. The project will initiate collaboration and interactions among them to bring fresh ideas and multidisciplinary tools together to conduct global change science in high latitudes and high altitudes. The project will include interdisciplinary training of graduate students and research experience for undergraduate students at Lehigh and Ohio State Universities. An educational specialist at the Byrd Polar Research Center at OSU will use the results from this project to develop an innovative outreach program to improve the delivery of climate change information to middle and high school teachers. Also, the project will contribute materials to a new Polar Frontier exhibit (featuring Frontier Alaska) in the Columbus Zoo. The results from this study will provide valuable insights into understanding the connections of climate change, glacier dynamics, hydrology, and ecosystems in a changing world. The project will contribute to disciplinary areas in hydrologic sciences, ecosystem studies, and geobiology and low-temperature geochemistry. Furthermore, the project has merited the support by ETBC (Emerging Topics in Biogeochemical Cycles) because it exemplifies interdisciplinary research focused on the tandem investigation of climate-water-carbon dynamics and physical-chemical-biological processes over a range of temporal and spatial scales.