Collaborative Research: Deglacial and Holocene Environmental Change in California's Headwaters: Insights from High-Resolution Sedimentary Records from Mono Lake

随着干旱、洪水和野火的频率、强度和破坏性的增加，必须把新的重点放在了解美国西部的气候系统上。 该项目将研究莫诺盆地的沉积物，莫诺盆地是加州最重要的水源。 位于内华达州东部的莫诺湖对该地区降水量的变化高度敏感。该项目将开发出日期明确的湖泊数据，与过去16,000年的气候模型进行比较，以研究控制环境变化的机制。 此外，该项目将改进沉积物测年技术的方法，为Flyover Country移动的手机应用程序制作虚拟图尔斯之旅，并为国家公园和社区团体编写教育材料。该项目还将使用项目数据集为本科生、研究生和高中教师进行STEM实践培训。年代久远的湖泊沉积物岩心提供了为数不多的陆地档案之一，可将美国西部的气候变化记录扩展到全新世早期和更新世末期。从莫诺湖岩心的地球化学，沉积学和古生物学代理记录的解释将提供湖泊水位和生产力的连续记录，这些记录与古海岸线的绝对湖泊水位有关。一个亚百年精度的记录年龄模型将首次允许西方陆地气候条件与全球记录的准确和精确相关。这将揭示在过去2000年中，从大陆冰盖的减少到干旱和暴雨之间，控制西部气候的机制，这些机制已经在树木年轮记录中得到了详细的研究。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

As droughts, floods, and wildfires increase in frequency, intensity, and devastation, new emphasis must be placed on understanding the climate system of the American West. This project will study sediments from the Mono Basin, the most important water source for California. Located in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Mono Lake is highly sensitive to changes in the amount of precipitation falling in the region. The project will develop well-dated lake data to compare with climate models for the last ~16,000 years to study the mechanisms that control environmental change. In addition, the project will produce methodological improvements in sediment-dating techniques, produce virtual tours for the Flyover Country mobile phone app and develop educational materials for national park and community groups. The project also will use project datasets in hands-on STEM training for undergraduate and graduate students and high school teachers. Well-dated lake sediment cores provide one of the few terrestrial archives available to extend the record of climate change in the American West into the early Holocene and terminal Pleistocene. Interpretation of geochemical, sedimentological, and paleobiological proxy records from Mono Lake cores will provide continuous records of lake level and productivity that are tied to absolute lake levels available from paleo-shorelines. A sub-centennial-precision age model for the records will allow accurate and precise correlation of terrestrial climate conditions in the West to global records for the first time. This will shed light on the mechanisms controlling Western climate between the waning of the great continental ice sheets and the droughts and pluvials of the last 2000 years, which have been examined in detail in tree-ring records.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.