CAREER: The Last Glacial Termination in Interior Asia

结束最后一个冰河时代的气候事件——被称为“最后一次冰川终止”——涉及最近地质历史中最严重的自然全球变暖。这也是在工业时代之前，大气中二氧化碳含量最后一次大幅上升。因此，最后一次冰川终止代表了地球系统进行的一次壮观的自然实验，可以通过研究来破译气候系统的潜在动力学及其对强迫因素（如大气二氧化碳）的敏感性。这个项目的目的是确定冰川何时消退，气候变暖的速度有多快，在最后一个冰河时代结束时，在亚洲的心脏地带——地球上最大和人口最多的大陆。这项研究将有助于确定导致最后一次全球变暖的因素，并澄清大气中二氧化碳在冰河时代气候周期中的作用。这项工作将为下一代科学家提供身临其境的、基于实地的和合作的教育体验。该项目将汇集一个研究团队，其中包括来自芝加哥南区的代表性不足的高中生和STEM教师，来自美国、蒙古和中国的研究生和本科生，以及科学新闻专业的研究生。总体目标是建立和培育国际和跨文化的教育和科学伙伴关系，这些伙伴关系将在本项目结束后持续很长时间。确定末次冰期终止的原因是地球和气候科学的一个主要目标，并且需要监测整个地球上末次冰期到间冰期过渡的敏感古气候代用物的详细年表。本CAREER研究的目的是从亚洲中心开发这样的年表，用于从上一个冰河时代的高峰到今天的条件下山地冰川范围的减少。冰川年代学将基于对蒙古中纬度阿尔泰山脉和中国季风性东喜马拉雅地区冰川地貌的精确和准确的10Be地表暴露定年。冰川学模型将把这些冰川重建结果转化为冰川推断的大气温度记录，然后将其与太阳辐射、温室气体以及其他提出的驱动因素的特征进行比较，以区分导致最后一次终止的可能原因。该项目将按照一项综合研究和教育计划进行，该计划实施一种合作的、基于实地的学习策略，使不同水平的学生通过相互教学来学习。这个协作的、跨文化的、多民族的、多代人的团队将在该领域和整个科学过程中分享知识和经验。该团队将由(1)缅因大学的研究生和本科生，(2)蒙古和中国机构的学生和研究人员，(3)Gary Comer大学预科学校的学生和科学教师组成。这是一所公立特许学校，致力于改善芝加哥南部得不到充分服务的少数民族学生的生活；(4)梅迪尔新闻学院的科学新闻研究生将为出版和广播制作故事，从而为公众记录科学成果。

The climate event that ended the last ice age - dubbed the "last glacial termination" - involved the greatest natural global warming of the recent geologic past. This was also the last time in which atmospheric CO2 rose by a substantial amount prior to the industrial period. The last glacial termination therefore represents a spectacular natural experiment played out by the Earth system that can be studied in order to decipher the underlying dynamics of the climate system and its sensitivity to forcing factors, such as atmospheric CO2. This project aims to determine when, and how rapidly, glaciers receded and the climate warmed at the end of the last ice age in the heart of Asia - Earth's largest and most populous continent. This research will help identify factors that produced this last great global warming, and to clarify the role of atmospheric CO2 in ice-age climate cycles. This work will provide immersive, field-based, and cooperative educational experiences for the next generation of scientists. The project will bring together a research team that includes underrepresented high-school students and STEM teachers from the South Side of Chicago, graduate and undergraduate students from the U.S.A., Mongolia, and China, and graduate students of science journalism. The overarching goal is to establish and nurture international and cross-cultural educational and scientific partnerships that are built to last well beyond the duration of this project.Identifying the causes of the last glacial termination is a major objective of the earth and climate sciences, and requires detailed chronologies of sensitive paleoclimate proxies that monitored the last glacial-to-interglacial transition across the planet. The purpose of this CAREER research is to develop such chronologies from the center of Asia for the reduction of mountain glacier extent from the peak of the last ice age to today's conditions. Glacier chronologies will be based on precise and accurate 10Be surface-exposure dating of glacial landforms in the mid-latitude Altai range of Mongolia and in the monsoonal eastern Himalaya of China. Glaciological modeling will convert these glacier reconstructions into records of glacier-inferred atmospheric temperature, which will in turn be compared with signatures of incoming solar radiation, greenhouse gases, as well as other proposed drivers, to discriminate among possible causes of the last termination. This project will be carried out following an integrated research and education plan that implements a cooperative, field-based learning strategy in which students at different levels learn by teaching each other. The collaborative, cross-cultural, multi-national, and multi-generational team will share knowledge and experiences in the field and throughout the scientific process. This team will consist of (1) graduate and undergraduate students from the University of Maine, (2) students and researchers from Mongolian and Chinese institutions, (3) students and science teachers from the Gary Comer College Preparatory school ? a public charter school devoted to improving the lives of underserved minority students from the South Side of Chicago, and (4) embedded science journalism graduate students from the Medill School of Journalism who will produce stories for publication and broadcast, thus documenting scientific outcomes for the public.