Collaborative Research: Sensitivity of Circum-Arctic Peatland Carbon to Holocene Warm Climates and Climate Seasonality

Collaborative Research: RUI: Sensitivity of Circum-Arctic Peatland Carbon to Holocene Warm Climates and Climate Seasonality (PIs: Zicheng Yu, David Beilman, and Philip Camill) Recent accelerated Arctic warming has caused widespread changes in terrestrial ecosystems, including carbon dynamics. Past climate warming and documented ecosystem responses provide crucial insights from Earth?s history for understanding and projecting possible responses to future climate change. In this project, researchers from Lehigh University, University of Hawaii and Bowdoin College will evaluate the outcomes of ?natural climate-warming experiments? that have occurred across the Arctic over the Holocene (the last 12,000 years). They will focus on two warm climate intervals: (1) the Holocene Thermal Maximum ranging in timings between 10,000 and 6000 years ago, and (2) the warm Medieval Climate Anomaly around 1000 years ago. The funds were requested (1) to collect new samples from carbon-rich peatlands from several critical regions (including Alaska, Mackenzie Basin, Hudson Bay Lowlands, Labrador, and Kamchatka), (2) to carry out integration and synthesis of available data, and (3) to work on climate-carbon modeling experiments along with their collaborators. The idea that both temperature and climate seasonality are dominant controls of carbon balances in carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems has important implications for projecting the fate of Arctic carbon in the future, as future warming is expected mainly in the winter season. Other broader impacts include (1) the support of new faculty career development, (2) training of undergraduate students, graduate students, and a postdoctoral fellow, emphasizing groups traditionally underrepresented in the natural sciences, (3) international collaborations and training through two workshops, and (4) public outreach through a symposium on Arctic climate change and soil carbon dynamics and the development of long-term exhibits at the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum at Bowdoin College.

合作研究：RUI：环北极泥炭地（peatland）碳对全新世（Holocene）暖气候与气候季节性的敏感性（项目负责人：于志成、大卫·贝尔曼、菲利普·卡米尔）近期北极变暖加速，已引发陆地生态系统的广泛变化，包括碳动态（carbon dynamics）的改变。过去的气候变暖和有记录的生态系统响应，为理解和预测未来气候变化的可能响应提供了来自地球历史的关键洞见。在本项目中，来自利哈伊大学、夏威夷大学和鲍登学院的研究人员将评估全新世（Holocene，过去12000年）期间北极各地发生的“自然气候变暖实验”的结果。他们将聚焦于两个暖气候期：（1）发生于10000至6000年前的全新世大暖期（Holocene Thermal Maximum）；（2）约1000年前的中世纪气候异常期（Medieval Climate Anomaly）。项目申请资金用于：（1）从多个关键区域（包括阿拉斯加、麦肯齐盆地、哈德逊湾低地、拉布拉多和堪察加半岛）的富碳泥炭地采集新样本；（2）对现有数据进行整合与综合分析；（3）与合作者共同开展气候-碳模拟实验。温度和气候季节性是富碳北极生态系统碳平衡的主导控制因素这一观点，对于预测未来北极碳的命运具有重要意义——因为未来变暖预计主要发生在冬季。其他更广泛的影响包括：（1）支持新教师的职业发展；（2）培训本科生、研究生及一名博士后研究员，重点关注自然科学领域传统上代表性不足的群体；（3）通过两次研讨会开展国际合作与培训；（4）通过举办北极气候变化与土壤碳动态研讨会，以及在鲍登学院皮尔里-麦克米伦北极博物馆（Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum）开发长期展览，进行公众科普。