Collaborative Research: A place-based, student-led research project in the Pioneer Mountains, Montana: an investigation of very dry, alpine glaciation proximal to the Laurentide Ic

合作研究：蒙大拿州先锋山脉的一个以地方为基础、由学生主导的研究项目：对劳伦泰德IC附近非常干燥的高山冰川的调查

• 批准号: 2018059
• 负责人: Paul Bierman
• 金额: $ 3.74万
• 依托单位: University of Vermont & State Agricultural College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2018059&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; place; based; student

This project will incorporate local geoscience students and an experiential, place-based educational approach to reconstruct the glacial history of the Pioneer Mountains in southwest Montana. This project will immerse first-generation, under-represented college students at the University of Montana Western in climate research. Students will investigate the region’s glacial history in collaboration with the NSF-supported Community Cosmogenic Facility at University of Vermont. The investigators will test the hypothesis that glaciers, located near large ice sheets and experience both cold temperatures and exceptionally low precipitation, may have reached local ice extent maximums considerably earlier than the Laurentide (i.e., Canadian) Ice Sheet maximum (~21,000 years ago). They will do this by sampling and dating glacier moraines in the Pioneer Mountains, which today have very low precipitation due to blocking by ranges along the Continental Divide. Glacier moraine sequences from the Pioneer Mountains may shed new understanding into the mechanisms by which mountain glaciers respond to Earth’s long-term orbital fluctuations and concomitant climatic changes. This place-based research project will provide the undergraduate students, many of whom are from rural Montana, with an immersive opportunity to better understand their own states’ landscapes, the geomorphic processes that formed them, and the important climatic information they provide.This research will provide insight into glacier advance and retreat during the last glaciation in continental climatic regions that were proximal to the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS), in an exceptionally dry mountain range where the glacial chronology has not been studied. The Pioneer Mountains are one of the few ranges in western Montana underlain by granite, making it feasible to use 10Be in quartz for cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages and thus produce the first moraine chronologies for the region. The investigators will test whether the differences in maximum-ice times found in eastern ID and northwestern WY are due to regional climatic contrasts, such as anticyclonic wind patterns driven by the presence of the LIS or non-climatic factors (e.g., hypsometry and response time). Such atmospheric pressure systems would deflect westerly maritime moisture flux away from the northern Rocky Mountains as the LIS developed, and therefore the glacier maxima in the Pioneers may precede the LIS maxima and the aforementioned glacier systems. Results from this work will advance the understanding of temperature-dependent glaciers under extremely dry and very cold conditions, providing insight about how current glaciers in the coldest, driest regions of the world may respond to modern climate warming. This project is jointly funded by the Geomorphology and Land-use Dynamics Program (GLD) and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.

该项目将结合当地的地球科学学生和基于地方的体验式教育方法来重建蒙大拿州西南部先锋山脉的冰川历史。该项目将使蒙大拿州西部大学的第一代、代表性不足的大学生沉浸在气候中。研究人员将与美国国家科学基金会支持的佛蒙特大学社区宇宙发生设施合作，调查该地区的冰川历史。研究人员将检验冰川位于大冰盖附近并经历这两种情况的假设。寒冷的气温和异常低的降水量，可能比劳伦泰德（即加拿大）冰盖最大值（约 21,000 年前）更早达到当地冰范围最大值。他们将通过对先锋山脉的冰川冰碛进行采样和测年来做到这一点。由于先锋山脉沿大陆分水岭的阻挡，今天的降水量非常低，这可能会让我们对山地冰川的响应机制产生新的认识。地球的长期轨道波动和随之而来的气候变化将为本科生（其中许多来自蒙大拿州农村）提供身临其境的机会，以更好地了解自己所在州的景观以及形成它们的地貌过程。 ，以及它们提供的重要气候信息。这项研究将深入了解劳伦太德冰盖附近的大陆气候区域末次冰期期间冰川的前进和后退（LIS），在一个异常干燥的山脉中，冰川年代学尚未被研究过。先锋山脉是蒙大拿州西部少数几个被花岗岩覆盖的山脉之一，使得使用石英中的 10Be 进行宇宙成因核素暴露年龄成为可能。研究人员将测试爱达荷州东部和怀俄明州西北部发现的最大冰期时间的差异是否是由于区域气候差异造成的。随着 LIS 的存在或非气候因素（例如，高度测量和响应时间）驱动的反气旋风型，随着 LIS 的发展，这种大气压力系统将使西风海洋湿气通量远离落基山脉北部，从而使冰川最大值偏转。先驱者中的研究可能先于 LIS 最大值，并且这项工作的结果将促进对极端干燥和非常寒冷条件下温度依赖性冰川的理解，提供有关如何影响冰川的见解。目前世界上最寒冷、最干燥地区的冰川可能会对现代气候变暖做出反应。该项目由地貌和土地利用动力学计划（GLD）和刺激竞争性研究既定计划（EPSCoR）联合资助。该奖项反映了这一点。通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。