Lake Towuti Workshop: Paleoenvironments, Biological Evolution, and Geomicrobiology of an ultramafic, Tropical Pacific Lake; The Lake Towuti Drilling Project

这项提案奖为参加2012年1月在印度尼西亚万隆举行的研讨会的6名美国研究人员提供旅费。研讨会的目的是为在印度尼西亚苏拉威西岛的托乌提湖开展一个新的大陆钻探项目制定战略计划，参与者包括来自印度尼西亚、加拿大、欧洲和美国的研究人员。托乌提湖的地质记录为在厄尔尼诺-南方涛动的起源处重建西太平洋多个冰期-间冰期旋回的气候变化提供了一个独特的机会。在Towuti湖的钻探将确定湖泊的年龄和起源，形成其生态系统演变的环境和气候背景，以及过去6万年气候变化对其地球微生物学的影响。这次讲习班将为一项重要的国际研究奠定基础，该研究将产生关于印度尼西亚中部上空大气对流的重要信息，这种对流对全球大气热平衡和水平衡产生强烈影响。讲习班的主要费用将由总部设在德国的国际大陆钻探计划支付。参加这次研讨会的美国研究人员将确保他们能够参与计划中的研究，并通过共同开发西太平洋的第一个科学钻探项目，促进美国师生与印度尼西亚同行开展新的智力合作。这个项目产生的数据将有助于更好地了解几个世纪以来的全球气候变化。

This proposal award provides funding to support the travel costs of six U.S. researchers to participate in a workshop in Bandung, Indonesia, in January 2012. The workshop is intended to develop a strategic plan for a new continental drilling project in Lake Towuti, Sulawesi, Indonesia, and will involve researchers from Indonesia, Canada, and Europe as well as the U.S. The geological record at Lake Towuti provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct climate change over multiple glacial-interglacial cycles in the Western Pacific, at the origin of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation. Drilling in Lake Towuti will identify the age and origin of the lake, the environmental and climatic context that shaped the evolution of its ecosystem, and changes in its geomicrobiology in response to climate variations over the past 60,000 years. This workshop will lay the groundwork for a major international research study that will yield important information about the atmospheric convection over Central Indonesia, which influences strongly the global atmospheric heat and water balances. The major costs of the workshop will be covered by the International Continental Drilling Program, which is based in Germany.Participation in this workshop by the U.S. researchers will ensure their access to the planned research and catalyze new intellectual collaborations of American faculty and students with their Indonesian counterparts by developing jointly the first scientific drilling project in the Western Pacific. Data generated by this program will contribute to a better understanding of global climate change over the centuries.