Collaborative Research: Assessing the response of tropical temperature to global forcings since the Last Glacial Maximum

热带地区是地球的热力发动机，居住着世界上大约40%的人口。 然而，我们对热带气候如何以及为什么随着时间的推移而变化知之甚少。 该项目将在乌干达鲁文佐里山区建立一个温度记录，涵盖最后一个冰河时代至今，以增进对造成热带气候变化的机制和热带在全球气候系统中的作用的了解。 鲁文佐里山脉是极少数可以获得这种长期客观数据的冰川热带地区之一。该项目将利用两种不同的气候信息来源，包括：1）冰碛（标志前冰川范围的山脊）和冰川建模的表面暴露年代测定，以及2）湖泊沉积物岩心的化学分析。 该项目将在乌干达进行实地工作，收集冰碛样品和湖泊沉积物芯。它将评估热带非洲的温度变化如何与热带南美洲的类似重建有关，以及它们如何对应于太阳辐射，格陵兰岛和南极冰盖范围以及大气温室气体浓度的变化。 该项目将推动了解全球气候在过去大约20，000年中如何运作的努力。该奖项由古气候变化计划和国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。

The tropics are the heat engine of the planet and home to about 40% of the world's population. However, we know very little about how and why tropical climate has changed through time. This project will develop a temperature record in the Rwenzori Mountains of Uganda covering the last ice age to the present to improve the understanding of the mechanisms that cause tropical climate change and the role of the tropics in the global climate system. The Rwenzori Mountains are among the very few glaciated tropical areas where such long-term, objective data can be obtained. This project will utilize two different sources of climate information including: 1) surface exposure dating of glacial moraines (ridges that mark former glacial extents) and glacial modeling, and 2) chemical analyses of lake sediment cores. The project will entail fieldwork in Uganda to collect glacial moraine samples and lake sediment cores. It will evaluate how tropical African temperature changes relate to similar reconstructions in tropical South America, and how they correspond to changes in solar radiation, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheet extents, and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations. The project will advance the effort to learn how the global climate worked over the last approximately 20,000 years.This award is cofunded by the Paleo Perspectives on Climate Change Program and the Office of International Science and Engineering.