Collaborative Research: Characterizing Arctic Climate Extremes from the Pliocene to the Present: the view from Lake El'gygytgyn, western Beringia

除了格陵兰冰芯覆盖的时间段外，北极高地对过去气候事件的区域反应鲜为人知。然而，在2009年春季，在俄罗斯东北部楚科特卡北极圈以北100公里处的El‘gytgyn湖成功地恢复了360万年的沉积物记录。El’gytgyn湖是一个直径12公里的陨石坑湖。这笔赠款将继续研究湖心的古气候记录。对沉积记录的分析将极大地扩展已知的气候历史。该团队将把数据分析与气候建模相结合，以检验关于北极高地气候与其他地区气候之间关系的四个假设。首先，北极的陆地记录还没有足够详细地涵盖中布朗日过渡，以确定在南极最初几个100周周期中观察到的较冷的间冰期是否也在北极发现。第二，早更新世北极陆地冰川/间冰期40k周期的幅度尚不清楚。第三，上新世晚期北极的陆地温度也是未知的，这是一个大气二氧化碳含量上升的时期。第四，该研究小组将调查北极温度对海洋同位素第二阶段冷却的响应。这些结果将有助于确定北极地区对大气二氧化碳水平的敏感性。这笔赠款将向科学界提供关于北极在100ky冰川周期、40ky冰川周期以及北半球冰川开始之前的气候变化幅度的信息。这些数据将允许与EPICA冰芯、漫长的亚洲黄土、洞穴和湖泊记录以及可比的海洋记录和全球气候[计算机]模型进行直接比较。公众和政策制定者仍然对与气候变化有关的问题感到困惑。这项工作应该有助于澄清北极气候自然变化的背景，以便能够看到现代变化的背景。四名博士生和一名博士后将获得科学和指导支持。此外，该团队将通过每年夏天将五名马萨诸塞州西部的教师带到马萨诸塞州大学进行为期两周的STEM教师培训，以获得实际的实验室和实地经验，并共同开发针对马萨诸塞州教育部科学标准核心要素的课程。由于湖泊和池塘在美国部分地区很常见，教师培训的一部分将侧重于湖泊/池塘沉积物，以记录他们可以在其社区记录的环境和气候变化。这将与中学地球科学教师合作完成，该教师于2009年作为PolarTREC教师在El‘gytgyn湖任教。

The regional response of the high Arctic to past climate events is little known beyond the time period covered by the Greenland ice cores. However, in Spring 2009, a 3.6 million year long sediment record was successfully recovered from Lake El'gygytgyn, a 12km diameter meteor crater lake located 100km north of the Arctic Circle in Chukotka, NE Russia. This grant will continue studies of the paleoclimate record from the lake cores. Analysis of the sedimentary record will greatly extend the known climate history. The team will integrate data analysis with climate modeling to test four hypotheses regarding the relationship between high Arctic climate and climate of other regions. First, no terrestrial Arctic record yet covers the mid-Brunhes transition in sufficient detail to determine whether the cooler interglacial periods observed in the first several 100ky cycles in the Antarctic are also found in the Arctic. Second, the amplitude of 40ky -duration glacial/interglacial cycles in the terrestrial Arctic during early Pleistocene is not known. Third, terrestrial Arctic temperatures during the Late Pliocene, a period of elevated atmospheric pCO2, are also unknown. Fourth, the team will investigate Arctic temperature response to cooling during Marine Isotope Stage 2. These results will help determine the sensitivity of the Arctic to atmospheric CO2 levels. This grant will provide the scientific community with information about the magnitude of climate changes in the Arctic during the 100ky glacial cycles, the 40ky glacial cycles, and from prior to the initiation of Northern hemisphere glaciations. These data will allow direct comparison to the EPICA ice cores, long Asian loess, speleothem, and lake records, and comparable marine records and Global Climate [computer] Models. Both the public and policy makers remain confused about issues relating to climate change. This work should help clarify the background of natural variations in Arctic climate, so that the modern changes can be seen in context.Four PhD students and one post-doctoral fellow will receive science and mentoring support. In addition, the team will train STEM teachers by bringing five western Massachusetts teachers per summer to UMass for two weeks to gain hands-on laboratory and field experience and jointly develop curricula that address core elements of the Massachusetts Department of Education science standards. Because lakes and ponds are common across parts of the US, a portion of the teacher training will focus on lake/pond sediments with regard to the environmental and climate change they can document in their communities. This will be accomplished in collaboration with the middle school Earth science teacher who was at Lake El'gygytgyn in 2009 as the PolarTREC teacher.