The nature and timing of deglaciation and landscape response to abrupt climate change

冰川流域覆盖了全球陆地面积的26%，居住着全球近三分之一的人口。全球气温的预测上升意味着了解未来冰川融化的潜在模式和速度是一个关键问题。了解融化速率的关键信息可以从过去的冰块重建中提取，该项目侧重于末次冰期间冰期过渡（LGIT; 19 - 8 kyr BP）。前英国和爱尔兰冰盖的重建集中在从近海极大冰退缩到今天的海岸线的时间和速度，以了解海洋终止冰川的冰川消退。然而，重建精度低（千年尺度），不处理陆地冰退缩的时间。因此，有必要扩大我们的理解，这种冰川消退在空间和时间的意义上，特别是通过开发人类寿命相关（亚百年尺度）的冰退缩重建。该项目的目标是利用3个战略地点的多种年代学工具，在LGIT期间开发北方英国冰川消退的强大，精确和准确的年表。该项目将利用沉积古DNA和X射线荧光光谱作为高分辨率古气候和古环境代用数据，评估地貌对气候突变的反应速度。

Glacier-fed drainage basins cover ~26% of global land surface populated by nearly one third of global population. Predicted increases in global temperatures means that understanding the potential patterns and rates of future glacier melt is a key concern. Critical information to understand rates of melt can be extracted from reconstructions of past ice masses with this project focusing on the Last Glacial Interglacial Transition (LGIT; 19 - 8 kyr BP). Reconstructions of the former British and Irish Ice Sheet have concentrated on the timing and rates of ice retreat from offshore maxima to the present-day coastline to understand deglaciation in marine terminating glaciers. However, the reconstructions have low precision (millennial scale) and do not deal with the timing of terrestrial ice retreat. Therefore, there is a need to extend our understanding of this deglaciation in both a spatial and temporal sense, particularly by developing human lifetime relevant (sub-centennial scale) reconstructions of ice retreat. This project will aim to develop robust, precise and accurate chronologies of the deglaciation of Northern Britain during the LGIT using multiple chronological tools from 3 strategically located sites. It will assess the rate of landscape response to abrupt climate change by using sedimentary ancient DNA and XRF as high resolution palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental proxy data.