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

预计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和对强迫的动态反应的可能性，预测的变暖对高纬度地区的未来影响还没有得到很好的理解。 测试预测变暖的可靠性的一种方法是开发古记录，记录过去条件（间冰期）变暖的影响，当时气候持续比现在温暖。 拟议的研究重点是建立记录，过去的气候温暖或温暖比现在的网站在阿拉斯加，中部和北方育空地区领土。 这项研究使我们的，并进一步发展，在这个地区的远火山灰（火山灰）的记录，它允许在大面积的离散时间线被确定，以连接记录网站之间，并建立独立的年龄残留的永久冻土和古环境记录。

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.