Analyzing Atmospheric Warming and Environmental Changes from High-Altitude Ice Cores

历史证据表明，气候对文明的兴衰做出了贡献。证据还表明，早期人类活动，如土地利用变化和生物量退化，可能影响了气候。虽然目前的科学证据表明，人类排放的温室气体是导致全球气温上升的原因之一，但对短期区域变化的洞察要模糊得多。这项研究项目将重点研究从全新世最冷的时间段(被称为小冰期)到目前的暖期，大气变暖与生态系统和人类社会的环境变化之间的相互影响。该项目将为大气污染和气候变化之间的协同作用提供新的视角，特别是在经常发生快速冰川融化的高海拔地区。来自该项目的见解将促进对人类造成的大气污染对气候的影响以及可能导致大气变暖放大和大气温度降低的因素之间关系的基本理解。项目成果将有助于指导政策制定者、政府机构和资源管理者评估适当的行动方针。该项目还将加强美国和欧洲科学家和机构之间的国际研究合作。奥特尔斯是意大利南蒂罗尔最高的山峰，揭示了至少四个世纪的气候和环境历史记录。这些冰芯是从世界上变暖最迅速、对环境影响最大的地区之一提取的，为研究强烈的区域环境变化和范围更广的全球气候模式之间的相互作用提供了独特的机会。利用同位素分析、微量元素比值、质谱分析和离子色谱，研究人员将寻求三个核心问题的答案：(1)在过去400年里，高海拔地区的气温是否有所上升？(2)更大的人为产生的气溶胶水平与地区气温上升之间有什么关系？(3)干旱和多雨时期是否会影响大气颗粒物的含量？项目成果将为气候、人类社会和生态系统之间的复杂相互作用以及它们之间由质量和能量流动联系起来的错综复杂的联系提供新的视角。

Historical evidence indicates that climate has contributed to the rise and fall of civilizations. The evidence also suggests that early human activities, such as land-use changes and biomass degradation, may have impacted climate. While current scientific evidence indicates that human-emitted greenhouse gases are contributing to the increase in temperatures across the globe, insights into short-term regional changes are much more ambiguous. This research project will focus on the reciprocal influence between atmospheric warming and environmental changes in ecosystems and human society from the coldest time interval of the Holocene (a period known as "the Little Ice Age") to the current warm period. The project will provide new perspectives about the synergies between atmospheric pollution and climate change, especially at higher elevations where rapid glacial melting often occurs. The insights from this project will advance basic understanding about relationships between the impacts of human-induced atmospheric pollution on climate as well as factors that may lead to both the amplification of atmospheric warming and the suppression of atmospheric temperatures. Project results will help guide policy makers, governmental agencies, and resource administrators in assessing appropriate courses of action. This project also will strengthen international research collaborations among U.S. and European scientists and institutions.Four ice cores retrieved from the ice field atop Mt. Ortles, the highest mountain in South Tyrol, Italy, reveal records of at least four centuries of climatic and environmental history. These ice cores, which were extracted from one of the most rapidly warming and environmentally impacted areas in the world, offer a unique opportunity to investigate the interactions of strong regional environmental variations and wider-ranging global climatic patterns. Using isotopic analysis, trace elements ratios, mass spectrometry, and ion chromatography, the investigators will seek answers to three core questions: (1) Have temperatures increased at the high elevations over the past 400 years? (2) What is the relationship between larger levels of human-generated aerosols and increases in regional temperatures? (3) Do droughts and wet periods impact atmospheric particulate content? Project findings will provide new perspectives regarding the complex interactions among climate, human society, and ecosystems as well as their intricate linkages bound by the fluxes of mass and energy.