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机，也是世界上40%人口的家园。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所知甚少。该项目将在乌干达鲁文佐里山脉（Rwenzori Mountains）建立一个覆盖上一个冰河期到现在的温度记录，以提高对导致热带气候变化的机制以及热带在全球气候系统中的作用的理解。鲁文佐里山脉是为数不多的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)冰川冰碛（标志着前冰川范围的山脊）和冰川模型的地表暴露年代测定，以及2)湖泊沉积物岩心的化学分析。该项目将需要在乌干达进行实地考察，收集冰川冰碛样品和湖泊沉积物岩心。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相关联，以及它们如何与太阳辐射、格陵兰岛和南极冰盖范围以及大气温室气体浓度的变化相对应。该项目将推动人们了解过去大约2万年来全球气候是如何变化的。该奖项由气候变化项目的古视角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.