REU Site: Field Research on Bahamian Lakes: Exploring Records of Anthropogenic and Climatic Change

巴哈马湖泊REU网站的目标是为本科生提供实地考察和实验室机会，以第一手了解地球作为一个系统，并通过研究现代湖泊系统和从湖泊沉积物岩心中恢复的环境、地球化学和生物变化记录来发展进行和交流科学研究的技能。我们将面向来自五大湖和中大陆地区城市综合性大学的二年级至三年级本科生地球科学和职前教师参与者。我们的区域招募将使我们能够鼓励来自城市地区的有色人种学生参加，并促进参与者在美国地质学会中北部共同分会上展示他们的研究。我们预计，REU的经历将对参与者完成学士学位和研究生工作产生积极影响。了解人类-气候相互作用的动态仍然是社会迫在眉睫的悬而未决的问题之一。自然气候变异性的作用以及它与人类如何改变环境和推动气候局部变化的差异，是全球变化研究的一个主要领域。我们的教师将指导学生收集、分析和解释现代亚热带湖泊系统的数据，以及从巴哈马湖泊中恢复的沉积岩芯过去的环境变化记录。这些数据将与来自考古发掘的地层、生物和化学记录进行比较，以破译人类占领的足迹以及它可能如何影响物理和生物环境。这些数据将被用来加深对气候和人为环境变化的历史和性质的理解。巴哈马湖区REU遗址有可能增加完成地质科学本科学位并继续攻读研究生课程的女性和未被充分代表的少数民族的人数。我们相信，我们与巴哈马学院和巴哈马古物、古迹和博物馆公司的国际合作，以及实地考察的国际性，将为学生提供无与伦比的文化丰富途径，以及全球合作的经验，这对学生未来在日益全球化的劳动力和经济中取得成功将是无价的。该奖项由地球科学部和国际科学与工程办公室资助。

The goal of the Bahamian Lakes REU site is to provide undergraduate students a fieldwork and laboratory opportunity to learn first-hand about Earth as a system and to develop skills in conducting and communicating scientific research through studying modern limnologic systems and the environmental, geochemical, and biological records of change recovered from lake sediment cores. We will target sophomore to junior-level undergraduate geoscience and pre-service teacher participants from urban comprehensive universities in the Great Lakes and mid-continent region. Our regional recruitment will allow us to encourage students of color from urban areas to participate as well as facilitating participants to present their research at a common North-Central section meeting of the Geological Society of America. We anticipate that this REU experience will positively influence participants to complete a baccalaureate degree and pursue graduate work.Understanding the dynamics of human-climate interaction remains one of society's looming unanswered questions. The role of natural climate variability and how it may differ from how humans may have changed their environment and driven localized changes to climate is a leading area of global change research. Our faculty will mentor students in the collection, analyses, and interpretation of data from the modern subtropical lake systems and past records of environmental change from sedimentary cores recovered from lakes in the Bahamas. These data will be compared to stratigraphic, biological, and chemical records derived from archaeologically excavations in order to decipher the footprint of human occupation and how it may have impacted the physical and biological environments. These data will be used to build a deeper understanding of the history and nature of climatic and anthropogenic environmental change through time.The Bahamian Lakes REU site has the potential of increasing both the number of women and under-represented minorities completing gesoscience undergraduate degrees and continuing on to graduate programs. We believe that our international collaboration with the College of the Bahamas and the Bahamian Antiquities, Monuments, and Museums Corporation and the international nature of the fieldwork will provide an unparalleled avenue for cultural enrichment for the students as well as an experience in global cooperation that will be invaluable for a student's future success in an increasingly global workforce and economy.This award is funded by the Division of Earth Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering.