Tephrostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental studies in Yukon and Alaska: analogues for a future, warmer Artic

预计到下个世纪的变暖将在高纬度地区表现得最为强烈。这些地区对环境变化高度敏感，在全球气候系统中发挥着重要作用。由于与北极系统相关的复杂反馈以及对强迫的动力响应的可能性，预估变暖对高纬度地区的未来影响尚未得到很好的理解。测试预估变暖可靠性的一种方法是开发古记录，这些记录记录了过去气候条件（间冰期）在持续的时间间隔内比现在的气候要温暖的变暖的影响。拟议中的研究重点是从阿拉斯加内陆、育空地区中部和北部建立过去气候比现在温暖或温暖的记录。这项研究使我们注意到并进一步发展了该地区远端火山灰（tephra）的记录，它允许在大范围内确定离散的时间线，以便连接不同地点之间的记录，并建立独立的残余永久冻土和古环境记录的年龄。

Projected warming through the next century will be most strongly expressed at high latitudes. These areas are highly sensitive to environmental change and play an important role in the global climate system. Future impacts at high latitudes of projected warming are not well understood due to the complex feedbacks associated with the Arctic system and the potential for dynamical responses to forcing. One means to test the reliability of projected warming is to develop paleo-records which document the impacts of warming from past conditions (interglacials) when climate was warmer than present for sustained intervals. The proposed research focuses on establishing records of past climate as warm or warmer than present from sites in the interior of Alaska, central and northern Yukon Territory. This research makes us of, and further develops, the record of distal volcanic ash (tephra) in this region which allows discrete timelines over large areas to be identified in order to connect records between sites, and establish independent ages of relict permafrost and paleoenvironmental records.