Collaborative Research: Terrestrial hydrology during the last deglaciation

水对地球上的生命至关重要，它在大气、海洋、湖泊和湿地、地下水、河流、永久冻土、冰川和冰盖之间流动。地球？地球上的水资源是有限的，这意味着当其中一个蓄水池被填满时，其他蓄水池就必须被清空以保持平衡。这个简单的原理--质量守恒--对社会理解过去气候和海平面变化的能力有着强大的影响，并有可能预测未来的气候和海平面变化。为了了解过去水和气候变化的影响，研究人员提出了一系列简单而基本的问题：首先，全球水平衡如何应对末次冰期的气候？第二，这种反应又如何通过从陆地蒸发、流入海洋以及与湿地的全球分布和功能相关的生态变化来影响气候系统？在这个项目中，研究人员将开发一种新的模型，将水文循环的这些组成部分联系起来，并将其应用于最近的地质过去，当时巨大的冰盖覆盖了高纬度地区，湖泊充满了现在干燥的盆地。通过将这个新模型与地质数据联系起来，研究人员希望了解过去海平面的变化如何分布在大陆上的冰盖和水，包括地下水，湖泊和湿地。他们还将研究淡水的突然释放如何影响海洋环流和全球气候。在这项研究的同时，他们将通过在线分享他们数字重建的古代陆地和水域景观，为教育工作者开发一个分水岭棋盘游戏，并将他们的发现贡献给科学期刊和维基百科，来传达水在环境中的重要性。陆地水储存在气候，生态系统，陆地-大气相互作用和海平面中起着至关重要的作用。到目前为止，大多数关于末次冰消的研究都集中在冰盖的变化上，而忽略了陆地水文系统的其他组成部分：湖泊、河流、湿地、地下水和永久冻土。因此，非冰川陆地水储存的变化幅度和速度及其对气候系统的潜在影响仍然未知。在这里，研究人员建议重建末次冰消期的全球水文环境。为此，他们将：（a）汇编、整合和综合末次盛冰期以来陆地古水文学代用指标;（B）开发一个耦合模型，将冰川均衡调整、湖泊和河流以及地下水联系起来;（c）整合数据和模型，以量化全球陆地水文学的时间演变。这一产出将使他们能够量化：（1）地表水体的迁移、扩张和收缩;（2）陆地上储存的水的总量及其对海平面记录和冰盖重建的影响;（3）通过蒸散和海底地下水排放向海洋输入的水，此外，它们还具有将冰盖重建与海平面和过去海洋环流记录相协调的潜力。与这些研究活动相结合，研究人员将以维基共享资源和天桥国家的地图形式提供他们的古水文重建，建立关于过去环境的教学材料，并改善维基百科对水文和古气候科学的覆盖。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而被认为值得支持。

Water, critical to life on Earth, moves between the atmosphere, oceans, lakes and wetlands, groundwater, rivers, permafrost, and glaciers and ice sheets. Earth?s finite amount of water means that whenever one of these reservoirs fills, the others must empty to balance it. This simple principle - conservation of mass - has powerful implications for society's ability to understand past climate and sea-level change, and potentially for predicting these into the future. To understand the impacts of past changes in water and climate, the researchers ask a simple and fundamental set of questions: First, how did the global water balance respond to the climate of the last glacial period? Second, how did that response in turn impact the climate system through evaporation from the land, runoff into the ocean, and ecological change linked with the global distribution and function of wetlands? In this project the researchers will develop a new model that links these components of the hydrological cycle, and apply this to the recent geological past when vast ice sheets covered the high latitudes and lakes filled now-dry basins. By connecting this new model with geological data, the researchers hope to understand how changes in past sea level are distributed among ice sheets and water on the continents, including groundwater, lakes, and wetlands. They will also investigate how sudden freshwater release can impact ocean circulation and global climate. In parallel with this research, they will communicate the importance of water in the environment by sharing their digitally reconstructed ancient land- and water-scapes online, developing a watershed board game for educators, and contributing their findings to scientific journals and Wikipedia.Terrestrial water storage plays a crucial role in climate, ecosystems, land-atmosphere interactions, and sea level. To date, most studies of the last deglaciation focus on changes in the ice sheets, but overlook the other components of the terrestrial hydrologic system: lakes, rivers, wetlands, groundwater, and permafrost. As a result the magnitude and pace of change of non-glacial terrestrial water storage - and its potential impact on the climate system - remains unknown. Here the researchers propose to reconstruct the global hydrologic environment during the last deglaciation. To do so, they will: (a) compile, integrate, and synthesize proxies for terrestrial paleohydrology since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM); (b) develop a coupled model linking glacial isostatic adjustment, lakes and rivers, and groundwater; and (c) integrate data and model to quantify the time evolution of global terrestrial hydrology. This output will allow them to quantify: (1) the migration, expansion, and contraction of surface water bodies; (2) the total amount of water stored on land and its impact on sea-level records and ice-sheet reconstructions; and (3) water inputs to the ocean through evapotranspiration and submarine groundwater discharge, alongside their potential to reconcile ice-sheet reconstructions with records of sea level and past ocean circulation. In conjunction with these research activities, the researchers will deliver their paleohydrologic reconstructions as maps available on Wikimedia Commons and Flyover Country, build instructional materials on past environments, and improve Wikipedia's coverage of hydrologic and paleoclimate science.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.