RAPID: Geomorphic controls on sediment age, ice preservation, and carbon storage in arctic permafrost systems

研究人员将获得永久冻土核心由当地采矿公司在阿拉斯加中部收集用于勘探目的，允许研究永久冻土的物理和地球化学稳定性以及沉积物沉积和侵蚀的相关储存碳。这些岩心将在黄土覆盖基岩中捕获重复的山坡样带，黄土深度和下伏崩积层特征各不相同。它们可以利用新的地球化学示踪剂，在地层学背景下对侵蚀速率和冰及沉积物年龄进行量化，从而实现碳、沉积物和冰动态之间的反馈。研究人员的目标是告知碳在永久冻土景观中的分布，这些景观的命运将有助于永久冻土解冻后碳释放的潜在变暖反馈。该项目将支持来自历史上代表性不足的群体的调查人员。对这些岩心的研究将为永久冻土环境中的地貌控制提供新的见解。了解地貌和地球化学景观遗产将告诉我们的永久冻土变化的轨迹及其对环境扰动的恢复力。直到下坡趋势和永久冻土山坡地层与沉积物运输的速率和过程相关联，才能完全理解这些环境中储存的碳的来源和命运。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The investigators will obtain permafrost cores to be collected in central Alaska by a local mining company for exploration purposes, allowing study of the physical and geochemical stability of permafrost and associated stored carbon as a function of sediment deposition and erosion. These cores will capture repeated hillslope transects in loess mantled bedrock with variable loess depth and underlying colluvium character. They could enable quantification of feedbacks among carbon, sediment and ice dynamics using novel geochemical tracers of erosion rates and ice and sediment age in stratigraphic context. The investigators aim to inform the distribution of carbon in permafrost landscapes whose fate will contribute to the potential warming feedback with carbon release upon permafrost thaw. The project will support investigators from historically underrepresented groups.Study of these cores will provide novel insight on geomorphic controls in permafrost environments. Understanding geomorphic and geochemical landscape legacies will inform us of the trajectory of permafrost change and its resilience to environmental perturbations. Until downslope trends and permafrost hillslope stratigraphy are linked to rates and processes of sediment transport, the provenance and fate of stored carbon in these environments cannot be fully understood.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.