Collaborative Research: Developing high-resolution records of storminess from the southern Bering Sea

最近的风暴加上白令海海冰的范围和持续时间的减少，严重影响了阿拉斯加的北极海岸线，严重扰乱了社区，威胁到包括商业捕鱼在内的商业，并对我们的军事和重要的海上运输系统构成了新的挑战。不幸的是，我们对过去风暴的了解仅限于过去几十年，所以我们对过去极端风暴的变化知之甚少。这阻碍了我们诊断风暴变化的原因，以及计划和应对未来风暴影响的能力。通过这个项目，我们将提供阿留申群岛中部过去两千年的全面风暴数据集，为当前和未来的风暴气候提供重要背景。沿着阿拉斯加阿留申群岛的研究巡航将使我们能够进入偏远的峡湾，收集一系列沉积物岩心和环境测量数据，这些数据有可能破译影响该地区的古代风暴事件的历史。这些风暴重建将提高我们对白令海风暴强度变化的理解，并允许检查增强或抑制风暴活动的区域环境因素。从这项研究中吸取的经验教训将对科学界、规划者和当地决策者有用，并将提高对未来风暴活动和沿海灾害的准备和恢复能力。由于白令海风暴的现代仪器记录是有限的，我们对过去几十年强烈风暴的变化知之甚少。为了解决这一知识上的空白，我们将从阿留申群岛北部海岸深海岸盆地的粗粒度事件层中重建过去几千年的极端风暴。利用沉积学、地球物理和数值模拟技术，结合当地仪器（波浪、电流、压力传感器），以及收集当地口头和书面的风暴叙述，我们将；1)重建几千年来的粗粒度事件床；2)测量与风暴相关的实时海岸过程，以确定事件床沉积的阈值，并为实时风暴和洪水影响预报提供国家气象局数据；3)与当地社区合作，制定历史风暴影响的年表；4)区分事件层沉积的其他机制，发展相对海平面变化和潜在的大地震和海啸的记录。这项研究与一个以实地和实验室为基础的教育计划紧密结合，该计划的重点是建立沿海地区的科学素养，以支持知情决策。极端风暴使阿拉斯加土著沿海社区面临洪水和侵蚀加剧的风险，并威胁到关键的基础设施和生存资源的获取。与乌纳拉斯加州的Qawalangin部落的合作将有助于在科学家、当地利益相关者和社区居民之间建立协同作用。部落参与规划和开展研究活动，制作专业的外联视频/照片博客，设计便携式教育展览和附带的课程材料，将为有意义的参与和向代表性不足的群体推广STEM领域提供许多机会。该研究还将纳入本科生和研究生，有针对性地努力增加阿拉斯加原住民、女性、少数民族和残疾人在STEM领域的代表性。我们将通过多种媒体、专业会议和出版物向公众和科学观众广泛介绍。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

Recent storminess combined with decreasing extent and duration of sea ice in the Bering Sea has significantly affected Alaska’s Arctic coastline, substantially disrupting communities, threatening commerce including commercial fishing, and posing new challenges to our military and vital marine transportation systems. Unfortunately, our knowledge of past storminess is limited to the last few decades, so we know little about past variability in extreme storms. This hinders our ability to diagnose the causes of changes in storminess and to plan for and address future storm impacts. With this project we will provide comprehensive storm data sets for the central Aleutian Islands that span the last two millennia, providing important context to current and future storm climates. A research cruise along Alaska’s Aleutian Islands will allow us to access remote fjords and collect a series of sediment cores and environmental measurements that have the potential to decipher the history of ancient storm events impacting the area. These storm reconstructions will improve our understanding of how intense storminess has changed in the Bering Sea and allow examination of the regional environmental factors that enhance or inhibit storm activity. The lessons learned from this research will be useful to the scientific community, planners, and local decision makers and will improve preparedness and resilience to future storm activity and coastal hazards.Because the modern instrumental record of storminess in the Bering Sea is limited, we know little about the variability of intense storminess prior to the last few decades. To address this gap in knowledge we will develop reconstructions of extreme storms over the last few millennia from coarse-grained event beds in deep coastal basins along the north coast of the Aleutians. Using sedimentological, geophysical and numerical modeling techniques, coupled with local instrumentation (wave, current, pressure sensors), and the collection of local oral and written storm narratives we will; 1) develop reconstructions of coarse-grained event beds over several millennia, 2) measure real-time storm-related coastal processes to determine thresholds for event bed deposition and provide National Weather Service data for real-time storm and flood impact forecasting, 3) engage with local communities to develop a chronology of historical storm affects, and 4) differentiate other mechanisms of event bed deposition and develop a record of relative sea-level change and potentially great earthquakes and tsunamis. This research is tightly coupled with a field- and lab-based education plan focused on building coastal science literacy to support informed decision-making. Extreme storms endanger Alaskan Native coastal communities already at risk from increased flooding and erosion and threaten critical infrastructure and access to subsistence resources. A collaboration with the Qawalangin Tribe of Unalaska will serve to build synergy between scientists, local stakeholders, and community residents. Tribal participation in the planning and carrying out of research activities, the production of a professional outreach video/photo blog, and design of a portable educational exhibit and accompanying curriculum materials will provide many opportunities for meaningful engagement and the promotion of STEM fields to under-represented groups. The research will also incorporate undergraduate and graduate students with targeted efforts to increase the representation of Alaska Natives, women, minorities, and people with disabilities in STEM fields. We will widely present to the public and scientific audiences through multiple media and at professional conferences and publications.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.