P2C2: Late Holocene Changes in the SPCZ from Algal Lipid D/H in Lakes Across Oceania

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项目编号	1502417
	P2C2: Late Holocene Changes in the SPCZ from Algal Lipid D/H in Lakes Across Oceania
	Julian Sachs
主持机构	University of Washington
项目开始年	2015
	2015-08-01
项目结束日期	2018-07-31
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Standard Grant
项目经费	396642(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	Non-Technical Abstract The tropical water cycle influences the global climate. Over the last 30 years it has undergone remarkable changes. Rainfall has increased in the regions of the tropics that normally receive lots of rain, and decreased in the drier regions. This was accompanied by a poleward expansion of the tropics in both hemispheres that has led to an expansion of desert regions over continents. Although tropical rainfall is poorly represented in many climate models, simple physical arguments and a wide range of models suggest these trends are likely to continue under global warming scenarios. It is unknown at this point whether the current changes in tropical rainfall are outside the range of natural variations of the pre-industrial climate. This is because rainfall data over the vast tropical oceans, which is derived primarily from satellites, is limited to the last 35 years. Such a brief weather record is insufficient to establish whether the recent changes in rainfall are anomalous. By extending the record of rainfall in the tropical South Pacific from the current 35 years to 2000 years, this project will produce the data necessary to assess whether rainfall changes over the last 35 years are unusual, and if so, whether they can be attributed to the buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. They will also provide the data necessary to determine which climate models are able to accurately reproduce tropical rainfall patterns, and therefore which models are likely to provide the most reliable forecasts. Technical Abstract In order to place recent changes in rainfall over the tropical South Pacific Ocean into a longer-term context, this project will produce quantitative reconstructions of rainfall throughout the South Pacific Convergence Zone (SPCZ) that span the last 2,000 years. The hydrogen isotope ratio (2H/1H, or D/H) of (3β,4α,5α,22E)-4,23- dimethylergost-22-en-3-ol, dinosterol, will be measured in sediment cores from 8 islands across the modern SPCZ region. Dinosterol is synthesized almost exclusively by certain genera of dinoflagellate microalgae. Owing to the inverse relationship between D/H ratios in rain and rainfall rates in the tropics, the so-called "amount effect," we find that D/H ratios of dinosterol (δDdino) in 21 surface sediments throughout the SPCZ region are highly correlated with rainfall rates according to the relationship δDdino=-16.6(±2.45)*P-180(±15.3) [R2=0.71, N=21], where P is the rainfall rate in mm/day. A Monte Carlo analysis of errors indicates that rainfall rate estimates with 0.3 mm/day uncertainty are possible using this technique. Sediment cores from the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Wallis & Futuna, and Fiji, representing 4 of the 5 study regions have already been collected. New cores from lakes in Samoa and American Samoa will be collected as part of this project. Initial results indicate a 2.6 mm/day increase in rainfall in the Solomon Islands, on the western side of the SPCZ, and a 1.1 mm/day decrease in Wallis and Futuna, on the eastern side of the SPCZ, during the transition from the Medieval Warm Period 1,000 years ago to the Little Ice Age 600 years ago.
来源学科分类	Geosciences - Earth Sciences
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/68395
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Julian Sachs.P2C2: Late Holocene Changes in the SPCZ from Algal Lipid D/H in Lakes Across Oceania.2015.