Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reconstructing Hurricane Activity in the Northern Gulf of Mexico: A Multi-Proxy Approach Using Biomarkers and Stable Isotopes

本博士论文研究将利用多种沉积和有机地球化学指标，在墨西哥湾北部海岸的两个地点建立过去飓风活动的高分辨率记录。这项研究将更好地了解飓风期间影响沉积的水文过程，并为独立于上冲砂层的海洋入侵事件提供代理。当应用于区域水平时，该研究有可能为在目前缺乏古飓风重建的地区调查过去的风暴活动提供新的机制。这项研究的结果将用于沿海管理和风险评估，并将与环境管理人员、社区规划人员和沿海应急管理官员直接相关。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项将为有前途的学生提供支持，使他们能够建立强大的独立研究事业。重建过去的飓风活动在很大程度上依赖于飓风风暴潮造成的冲过的沉积代用物。该项目的一个主要目标是通过确定与飓风冲积物相关的有机质来源，开发史前飓风活动的新代理。该项目将收集沉积岩心，并进行多种实验室分析，包括年代、沉积、地球化学、同位素和生物标志物分析。稳定同位素和生物标志物分析的结合将提供风暴事件的敏感指标，并将用于评估这些冲积沉积物是否含有来自海洋的有机物。这种方法还将提供有关风暴潮和沿岸洪水过程的复杂相互作用的信息，这些信息目前还没有得到很好的理解。确定这些过程之间的关系对于预测沿海环境对未来风暴影响的响应是必要的，也是沿海资源管理的重要考虑因素。

This doctoral dissertation research will utilize multiple sedimentary and organic geochemical proxies to develop a high-resolution record of past hurricane activity at two sites on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The research will provide a better understanding about the hydrologic processes that influence deposition during hurricanes, as well as serve a proxy for marine incursion events independent of overwash sand layers. When applied on a regional level, the research has the potential of providing new mechanisms for investigating past storm activity in regions that presently lack paleohurricane reconstructions. Findings from this research will be used for coastal management and risk assessment, and will be directly relevant to environmental managers, community planners and coastal emergency management officials. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.Reconstruction of past hurricane activity is largely reliant on sedimentary proxies of overwash due to hurricane storm surge. A primary objective of this project is to develop a new proxy of pre-historic hurricane activity by determining the source(s) of organic matter associated with hurricane overwash deposits. The project will collect sedimentary cores and perform multiple laboratory analyses including chronological, sedimentary, geochemistry, isotopic and biomarker analysis. The combination of stable isotope and biomarker analyses would provide a sensitive indicator of storm events and will be used to assess whether such overwash deposits contain organic matter derived from marine sources. This method will also provide information about the complex interactions of storm surge and in-shore flooding processes which are not yet well understood. Determining the relationships between these processes is necessary for predicting the response of coastal environments to future storm impacts, and are important considerations for coastal resource management.