Collaborative Research: Millennial-Length Histories of Northeastern Pacific Climate Variability from Bivalve Mollusks and Trees

该项目的总体目标是利用海洋双壳类太平洋地鸭(Panopea Generosa)的生长增量、树木年轮年表和热带珊瑚生长增量记录等古气候指标的组合，生成东北太平洋地区连续的、每年可分辨的和千年长的海洋气候历史。该地区的气候变化在北美西部的社会经济和环境动态中扮演着基本的角色，对渔业生产、森林生长、野火、干旱和积雪具有明确的影响。在过去十年中，该区域经历了反复的极端热浪，深刻影响了海洋生态系统和邻近的陆地系统。然而，关于1900年代之前的东北太平洋气候变率以及当前气候的非典型程度仍存在相当大的不确定性。本研究旨在重建东北太平洋海面温度，作为气候和气候变异性在地球气候系统中的一个重要强迫机制，但相对较差地受到仪器观测、古气候数据和一般气候环流模式的约束。该项目力求解决挥之不去的问题，即早期树轮重建之间的一致性不佳，以及海洋和陆地系统之间存在时变联系的可能性。此外，将通过综合珊瑚记录和现有重建的厄尔尼诺南方涛动来评估温带太平洋区域和热带太平洋区域之间的长期关系。东北太平洋古气候重建可以为从年际到百年时间尺度的半球气候的古气候记录、现代观测和模式数据集之间的比较提供独特的基准。潜在的更广泛的影响(B.I.)包括开发潜在的高影响气候指标，支持一名博士生，为本科生开发基于年表课程的本科生研究经验(CURE)，在树轮研究部门大堂和生物圈2安装展品，培训讲解员，并建立一个关于定量古气候技术的YouTube视频频道。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The general goal of this project is to produce a continuous, annually resolved, and millennial-length marine climate history of the northeast Pacific Ocean region using a combination of data from paleoclimate proxies involving growth increments of the marine bivalve Pacific geoduck (Panopea generosa), tree-ring chronologies, and tropical coral growth-increment records.Climate variability in the region plays a fundamental role in the socioeconomic and environmental dynamics of western North America with clearly established implications for fisheries production, forest growth, wildfire, drought, and snowpack. Over the past decade, the region has experienced repeated and extreme heatwaves that profoundly impacted marine ecosystems and adjacent terrestrial systems. Yet, considerable uncertainty exists as to northeastern Pacific climate variability prior to the 1900s and the extent to which current climate is atypical.Foremost, this research aims to reconstruct northeast Pacific Ocean sea-surface temperatures as a significant forcing mechanism of climate and climate variability in Earth’s climate system but which is relatively poorly constrained by instrumental observations, paleoclimate data, and general climate circulation models. This project seeks to address lingering questions regarding poor agreement among earlier tree-ring reconstructions and the possibility of time variant linkages across marine and terrestrial systems. Moreover, long-term relationships between the extratropical and tropical Pacific region will be assessed by integrating coral records and existing reconstructions of the El Niño Southern Oscillation. Northeastern Pacific paleoclimate reconstructions may yield unique benchmarks for comparison among paleoclimate records, modern observations, and model datasets of hemispheric climate from interannual to centennial timescales. The potential Broader Impacts (B.I.) include development of a potential high-impact climate proxy, support for a doctoral student, development of a dendrochronology course-based undergraduate research experiences (CURE) for undergraduate students, installation of exhibits into the lobbies of the tree-ring-research dept and in Biosphere2, training of docents, and building a Youtube channel of videos regarding quantitative paleoclimate techniques.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.