Collaborative Research: Response of Carbon Accumulation in Moss Peatbanks to Past Warm Climates in the Antarctic Peninsula

学术价值：本研究将调查南极泥炭滩在过去1000年里如何对南极半岛西部有记录的温暖气候做出反应。这项工作将把对气候控制泥炭碳积累的理解扩展到南极泥炭滩，从而使我们能够从两个角度来看待？首先回应的?气候变暖条件下的生态系统过程。了解气候和生态系统的历史将有助于揭示控制这些和其他极地生态系统功能的过程和机制。具体而言，研究人员将评估？自然气候变暖实验？在过去的1000年里发生在南纬65度的AP地区。他们将把重点放在南极半岛西部的两个温暖气候区间上：(1)上个世纪最近和持续升温高达6°C，(2)大约800年前发生的中世纪温暖期。通过收集和分析泥炭岩心以及其他生物和环境数据，研究人员将从过去1000年苔藓纤维素的氧同位素中获得独立的温度重建，以评估泥炭滩碳对记录的温暖气候条件的反应。拟议项目的总体目标是记录过去一千年来碳积累生态系统的形成年龄和时间变化，以响应气候变化，从独立的代理中重建。此外，他们的数据将使调查人员能够了解与大气环流和海洋条件有关的重建气候变化的本质。更广泛的影响：这项研究与理解影响土壤碳动态的极地过程直接相关，并将支持早期职业研究者。该项目将为本科生、研究生和博士后提供培训，并将开发极地气候和生态系统变化的教学模块和外展活动。

Intellectual Merit: This research will investigate how Antarctic peatbanks have responded to documented past warm climates on the Western Antarctic Peninsula over the last 1000 years. The work will extend understanding of climate controls on peat carbon accumulation to Antarctic peatbanks thus enabling a bi-polar perspective of ?first responder? ecosystem processes under warmer climate conditions. Understanding climate and ecosystem histories will help reveal processes and mechanisms that control the functioning of these and other polar ecosystems. Specifically, the investigators will evaluate outcomes of ?natural climate-warming experiments? that have occurred in the AP region at 65 degrees south over the last 1000 years. They will focus on two warm climate intervals in the Western Antarctic Peninsula: (1) the recent and ongoing warming of up to 6°C in the last century, and (2) the Medieval Warm Period that occurred ~800 years ago. By collecting and analyzing peat cores and other biological and environmental data, the investigators will derive an independent temperature reconstruction from oxygen isotopes of moss cellulose over the last 1000 years to assess peatbank carbon response to documented warm climate conditions. The overall goal of the proposed project is to document formation ages and temporal changes in carbon-accumulating ecosystems over the last millennium in response to climate change as reconstructed from independent proxies. Also, their data will allow the investigators to understand the nature of reconstructed climate change in relation to atmosphere circulation and ocean conditions. Broader impacts: This research is directly relevant to understanding polar processes affecting soil carbon dynamics and will support an early career researcher. This project will provide training for undergraduate students, graduate student and a postdoctoral fellow and will develop teaching modules and outreach activities on polar climate and ecosystem changes.