Collaborative Research: Reconstructing Late Holocene Ecosystem and Climate Shifts from Peat Records in the Western Antarctic Peninsula

合作研究：根据南极半岛西部的泥炭记录重建全新世晚期生态系统和气候变化

• 批准号: 1745068
• 负责人: Robert Booth
• 金额: $ 38.44万
• 依托单位: Lehigh University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1745068&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Reconstructing; Late; Holocene

Warming on the western Antarctic Peninsula in the later 20th century has caused widespread changes in the cryosphere (ice and snow) and terrestrial ecosystems. These recent changes along with longer-term climate and ecosystem histories will be deciphered using peat deposits. Peat accumulation can be used to assess the rate of glacial retreat and provide insight into ecological processes on newly deglaciated landscapes in the Antarctic Peninsula. This project builds on data suggesting recent ecosystem transformations that are linked to past climate of the western Antarctic Peninsula and provide a timeline to assess the extent and rate of recent glacial change. The study will produce a climate record for the coastal low-elevation terrestrial region, which will refine the major climate shifts of up to 6 degrees C in the recent past (last 12,000 years). A novel terrestrial record of the recent glacial history will provide insight into observed changes in climate and sea-ice dynamics in the western Antarctic Peninsula and allow for comparison with off-shore climate records captured in sediments. Observations and discoveries from this project will be disseminated to local schools and science centers. The project provides training and career development for a postdoctoral scientist as well as graduate and undergraduate students.The research presents a new systematic survey to reconstruct ecosystem and climate change for the coastal low-elevation areas on the western Antarctic Peninsula (AP) using proxy records preserved in late Holocene peat deposits. Moss and peat samples will be collected and analyzed to generate a comprehensive data set of late-Holocene climate change and ecosystem dynamics. The goal is to document and understand the transformations of landscape and terrestrial ecosystems on the western AP during the late Holocene. The testable hypothesis is that coastal regions have experienced greater climate variability than evidenced in ice-core records and that past warmth has facilitated dramatic ecosystem and cryosphere response. A primary product of the project is a robust reconstruction of late Holocene climate changes for coastal low-elevation terrestrial areas using multiple lines of evidence from peat-based biological and geochemical proxies, which will be used to compare with climate records derived from marine sediments and ice cores from the AP region. These data will be used to test several ideas related to novel peat-forming ecosystems (such as Antarctic hairgrass bogs) in past warmer climates and climate controls over ecosystem establishment and migration to help assess the nature of the Little Ice Age cooling and cryosphere response. The chronology of peat cores will be established by radiocarbon dating of macrofossils and Bayesian modeling. The high-resolution time series of ecosystem and climate changes will help put the observed recent changes into a long-term context to bridge climate dynamics over different time scales.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.

在20世纪后期，在南极半岛上的变暖引起了冰冻圈（冰雪）和陆地生态系统的广泛变化。这些最近的变化以及长期的气候和生态系统历史将使用泥炭沉积物解密。泥炭的积累可用于评估冰川撤退的速度，并洞悉南极半岛新脱位景观的生态过程。该项目建立在数据的基础上，表明最近的生态系统转化与西方南极半岛的过去气候相关，并提供了一个时间表来评估最近冰川变化的程度和速度。该研究将为沿海低海拔地区的气候记录产生气候记录，该地区将在最近（最近12，000年）改善高达6度C的主要气候变化。最近冰川历史的新陆地记录将洞悉观察到的南极半岛气候和海冰动力学变化，并可以与沉积物中捕获的偏克气候记录进行比较。该项目的观察和发现将被传播到当地学校和科学中心。该项目为博士后科学家以及研究生和本科生提供了培训和职业发展。该研究提出了一项新的系统调查，以重建西南极半岛（AP）的沿海低海拔地区的生态系统和气候变化，该调查使用后期的Holocene Peat矿床保存了替代记录。将收集和分析苔藓和泥炭样品，以生成全新世的气候变化和生态系统动力学的综合数据集。目的是记录并了解全新世纪晚期西美食的景观和陆地生态系统的转变。可检验的假设是，沿海地区的气候变化比冰核记录中证明的更大，并且过去的温暖促进了戏剧性的生态系统和冰裂响应。该项目的主要产物是使用基于泥炭的生物学和地球化学代理的多种证据来重建全新世气候变化，用于沿海低海拔地区的陆地陆地变化，这些证据将与来自AP区域的海洋沉积物和冰核的气候记录进行比较。这些数据将用于测试与新的泥炭形成生态系统（例如南极毛沼泽）有关的几种想法，这些想法在过去的温暖气候和生态系统建立和迁移的气候控制中，以帮助评估小冰河时代冷却和冰冻圈的响应的性质。泥炭核的年表将通过大化石和贝叶斯建模的放射性碳年代建立。生态系统和气候变化的高分辨率时间序列将有助于将观察到的最新变化置于长期的背景下，以在不同的时间范围内桥接气候动态。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的评估标准通过评估来获得支持的。