Collaborative Research: Interglacial climate in Bermuda and beyond

GSTDTAP

项目编号	1903389
	Collaborative Research: Interglacial climate in Bermuda and beyond
	Ian Winkelstern (Principal Investigator)
主持机构	Grand Valley State University
项目开始年	2019
	2019-07-01
项目结束日期	2022-06-30
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Standard Grant
项目经费	49324(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	This project will assess the variability of ocean surface temperatures along the U.S. East Coast and in the Caribbean for a key past warm climate period, the Last Interglacial (MIS 5e, 130-116,000 years ago). The Last Interglacial period is often thought to be one of the best past analogs to study in relation to expected near-future climate change because global sea surface temperatures were slightly warmer than today, and sea level was several meters higher. Additionally, because the Last Interglacial was geologically recent, well-preserved fossils that record paleoclimate information in the chemistry of their shells are relatively abundant. Previous efforts to map past sea surface temperatures across the North Atlantic have been undertaken, but a glaring data gap exists along the U.S. East Coast and as far as 1000 km out to sea. More than 40 million people currently live along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean. In addition to the direct impacts of a warmer climate, warming coastal sea temperatures can also strengthen Atlantic hurricanes, increasing damage to coastal infrastructure. Thus, it is of societal importance that we improve our knowledge of the potential for coastal water temperatures to increase in a warming world. By studying the Last Interglacial time interval, regional temperature estimates can be obtained from fossils that will help reveal how much ocean temperatures could potentially warm in this highly-populated region. This project will produce new high resolution paleotemperature reconstructions from well-preserved fossil mollusks found in transgressive beach deposits and raised paleo-reef deposits that are dated to the Last Interglacial. The research team will conduct field work to gather fossil mollusk samples from sedimentary sequences of interglacial age in Bermuda, the Bahamas, and multiple localities along the US East Coast from the Florida Keys up to the Massachusetts Cape. Collected shells will be analyzed for their stable and clumped isotopic compositions to determine past temperature and the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater (d18Osw; related to salinity) at each locality. The clumped isotope paleothermometer represents an advancement over traditional methods and will produce more robust paleoclimate information without the need to assume past d18Osw values. The resulting basin-scale map of interglacial paleotemperature and d18Osw will be useful for inter-proxy, model-proxy, and paleo-modern-future comparisons and to look for evidence of mid-interglacial meltwater events. Larger shells will be sampled at sub-annual resolution to determine paleo-seasonality in temperature at different latitudes. This research should thus not only yield a spatial pattern of interglacial hydrography in the study region but will be the first to do so at the seasonal time scale. In Bermuda, interglacial deposits from multiple past interglacials will also be sampled to compare stronger and weaker interglacial periods. As part of this project, one or more graduate students and multiple undergraduates will receive training in advanced geochemical techniques, field work and data analysis. Engaging activities relating to fossil and modern seashells will be brought to elementary and middle school students through science events in Michigan. The project will support two early career scientists who will receive mentoring from a senior co-principal investigator. 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.
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/213501
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Ian Winkelstern .Collaborative Research: Interglacial climate in Bermuda and beyond.2019.