Collaborative Research: Analysis of McCall Glacier Ice Core and Related Modern Process Studies

This is a collaborative project involving four institutions. The proposed research addresses two major questions related to climate in the eastern Alaskan Arctic: 1) How has climate, terrestrial ecology, and pollutant transport changed over the past 250 years in this region, based on ice core reconstructions from McCall Glacier? and 2) How well can we overcome the challenges of core proxy interpretations from ice cores taken from small polythermal valley glaciers through modern-process studies? To answer these questions the investigators conduct an inter-disciplinary analysis of ice core proxies, atmospheric dynamics, modern processes, and numerical ice flow modeling. A 152-meter long core has already been drilled through McCall Glacier and analyzed for 35 chemical proxies. The proposed work will focus on 1) interpretation of these proxies, 2) analysis of pollen in the core, 3) process studies to identify sources of pollen to McCall Glacier, 4) tying the weather and climate record of the past 50 years to the upper section of the core, 5) continuing 3D flow modeling of the glacier and local weather observations, 6) conducting modern process investigations of the effects of seasonal melt on the generation of the core proxy record. The project will support two graduate students.