CAREER: Sea Level and Topographic Evolution (SLATE): Exploring the feedback between sea level and sediment redistribution

海平面的变化受到广泛关注，因为它们影响洪水灾害，重新组织海岸线，影响火山爆发，并反映气候变化。 拟议的工作将通过开发一个新的模型来消除理解海平面变化的障碍，该模型将捕捉沉积物再分布和海平面变化相互影响的影响。 这将提供一种新的工具，用于了解对海平面变化和大河附近洪水灾害的控制，这些河流是许多沿海城市的所在地，与NSF的防洪线和人（科普）倡议有关。 这些努力将与四项以海平面变化为重点的教育和外展任务相结合，包括开发新的大学海平面变化课程，对学生进行教育学和指导培训，通过威斯康星州地质博物馆进行公共宣传，以及一项为期五年的外展计划，面向来自STEM代表性不足群体的K-12学生。该项目的目标是提高我们对海平面和沉积物再分布之间的反馈的理解。 虽然人们早就知道海平面和沉积物重新分布相互影响，但这种反馈的数量强度仍然是一个有争议的问题。 拟议的工作旨在通过开发一个将地球地形演变与海平面变化联系起来的新模型来缩小这一知识差距。 这将被用来探索控制沉积物-海平面反馈，通过量化海平面变化对海洋沉积物输送的敏感性，低地河流对海平面变化的敏感性，以及沉积物再分布对全球平均海平面和全球冰量的影响，在末次间冰期，现代气候的模拟。 这将阐明海平面变化对沉积物侵蚀和沉积的敏感性--这是地球海岸的一个共同特征--并为改进未来海平面变化的预测提供基础。 这将通过培训两名博士生、指导本科生以及与来自STEM代表性不足群体的K-12学生开展新的五年外展计划，支持教育、外展和多样性举措。该项目由地貌学和土地利用动力学计划以及海洋地质学和地球物理学计划共同资助。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。

Sea-level changes are of wide interest because they affect flood hazards, reorganize coastlines, influence volcanic eruptions, and reflect changes in climate. The proposed work will remove a barrier for understanding sea-level change by developing a new model that captures the effects that sediment redistribution and sea-level change have on one another. This will provide a new tool for understanding the controls on sea-level change and flood hazards near large rivers, which are home to many coastal cities, of relevance to NSF’s Coastlines and People (CoPe) initiative. These efforts will be paired with four education and outreach tasks focused on sea-level change, including the development of a new university course on sea-level change, training of students in pedagogy and mentorship, public outreach through the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum, and a five-year outreach program to K-12 students from underrepresented groups in STEM. The goal of this project is to improve our understanding of the feedback between sea level and sediment redistribution. Although it has long been known that sea level and sediment redistribution influence one another, the quantitative strength of this feedback remains a matter of contention. The proposed work is aimed at closing this knowledge gap through the development of a novel model that couples Earth’s topographic evolution to sea-level change. This will be used to explore the controls on the sediment-sea level feedback by quantifying the sensitivity of sea-level changes to marine sediment transport, the sensitivity of lowland rivers to sea-level change, and the effects of sediment redistribution on estimates of global mean sea level and global ice volume at the Last Interglacial period, an analogue for modern climate. This will clarify the sensitivity of sea-level change to sediment erosion and deposition—a common feature of Earth’s coasts—and provide a basis for improving projections of future sea-level change. This will support education, outreach, and diversity initiatives through the training of two PhDs students, the mentoring of undergraduate students, and a new five-year outreach program with K-12 students from underrepresented groups in STEM. The project is co-funded by the Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics Program and the Marine Geology and Geophysics Program.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.