CAREER: Ancient river and floodplain dynamics: a research and education plan for improving paleoenvironmental reconstructions and stratigraphic prediction

职业：古代河流和洪泛区动力学：改善古环境重建和地层预测的研究和教育计划河流和洪泛区是重要的资源-它们滋养农业用地，提供灌溉用水，并促进海岸线和大陆内部之间的交通。河流景观对气候和土地使用变化很敏感;然而，目前很难预测哪些河流系统最敏感，以及它们将如何对环境扰动作出反应。沉积沉积物提供了一个未被充分利用的记录，记录了地球景观如何在整个地球历史上响应气候，构造和土地覆盖变化而演变。从化石化的河流沉积物重建古代景观动态的方法有望了解河流和洪泛区如何应对过去的环境变化-这些信息可以帮助预测今天的河流和洪泛区如何适应现在和未来的气候和土地利用变化。尽管最近在重建古河流和洪泛区行为方面取得了进展，但从沉积物中提取定量信息的工具箱是有限的。该项目利用对美国西部暴露良好的白垩纪-始新世岩石露头的详细实地观察，重点是开发新方法，从沉积物中提取有关古代河流系统的实用信息。补充教育和推广计划旨在1）通过一系列实践培训课程加强沉积地质学家对古代河流景观的重建，2）通过流表活动提高初中和高中学生对动态河流环境的认识，以及3）支持露头和流表为来自代表性不足背景的学生提供研究机会。这项工作将扩大我们的能力，以衡量和比较河流和洪泛区如何改变，以应对整个地球历史上的环境强迫。这一历史视角将扩展我们的工具包，以预测现代河流和洪泛区将如何应对持续的人为气候和土地利用变化。此外，这项工作将提供新的方法来预测地下碳氢化合物，地下水和CO2储层的分布和质量。这个CAREER项目提出了一个综合的研究和教育计划，这将有助于为PI的长期专业工作奠定基础，1）推进古代沉积环境的重建，以加强现代沉积景观的决策和管理实践，并改善基于过程的地下地层预测，2）建立一支能够应对21世纪世纪能源和环境挑战的多样化和适应性强的劳动力队伍，3）扩大公民意识，了解沉积系统的变化如何提高我们在动态景观中可持续生活的能力。

CAREER: Ancient river and floodplain dynamics: a research and education plan for improving paleoenvironmental reconstructions and stratigraphic predictionRivers and floodplains are important resources - they nourish agricultural land, provide water for irrigation, and facilitate transportation between coastlines and continental interiors. Fluvial landscapes are sensitive to climate and land-use changes; however, it is currently difficult to predict which river systems are most sensitive and how they will respond to environmental perturbations. Sedimentary deposits provide an underexploited record of how Earth's landscapes have evolved in response to climate, tectonic, and land-cover change throughout Earth's history. Methods for reconstructing ancient landscape dynamics from fossilized river deposits hold promise for understanding how rivers and floodplains responded to past environmental changes - information that can help predict how today's rivers and floodplains may adjust to present and future climate and land-use changes. Despite recent advances in reconstructing ancient river and floodplain behavior, the toolkit for extracting quantitative information from sedimentary deposits is limited. Using detailed field observations from well-exposed Cretaceous-Eocene rock outcrops in the western United States, this project focuses on developing new methods of extracting practicable information about ancient river systems from sedimentary deposits. A complementary education and outreach program aims to 1) strengthen sedimentary geologists' reconstructions of ancient river landscapes through a series of hands-on, training courses, 2) raise awareness about dynamic fluvial environments among middle- and high-school students through stream-table activities, and 3) support outcrop- and stream-table-based research opportunities for students from underrepresented backgrounds. This work will expand our ability to measure and compare how rivers and floodplains changed in response to environmental forcing throughout Earth's history. This historical perspective will expand our toolkit for predicting how modern rivers and floodplains will respond to ongoing anthropogenic climate and land-use changes. Additionally, this work will provide new ways of predicting the distribution and quality of subsurface hydrocarbon, groundwater, and CO2 reservoirs. This CAREER project presents an integrated research and education plan that will help build a foundation for the PI's long-term professional efforts to 1) advance reconstructions of ancient sedimentary environments in order to enhance decision-making and management practices for modern sedimentary landscapes and improve process-based predictions of subsurface stratigraphy, 2) build a diverse and adaptable workforce capable of tackling the 21st century's energy and environmental challenges, and 3) broaden citizen awareness of how understanding variability in sedimentary systems can improve our ability to sustainably live in dynamic landscapes.