{"dp_type": "Project", "free_text": "MICROFOSSILS"}
[{"awards": "1939139 Scherer, Reed; 1939146 Siddoway, Christine", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-120 -66,-117.5 -66,-115 -66,-112.5 -66,-110 -66,-107.5 -66,-105 -66,-102.5 -66,-100 -66,-97.5 -66,-95 -66,-95 -67.1,-95 -68.2,-95 -69.3,-95 -70.4,-95 -71.5,-95 -72.6,-95 -73.7,-95 -74.8,-95 -75.9,-95 -77,-97.5 -77,-100 -77,-102.5 -77,-105 -77,-107.5 -77,-110 -77,-112.5 -77,-115 -77,-117.5 -77,-120 -77,-120 -75.9,-120 -74.8,-120 -73.7,-120 -72.6,-120 -71.5,-120 -70.4,-120 -69.3,-120 -68.2,-120 -67.1,-120 -66))", "dataset_titles": "Pliocene diatom abundance, IODP 379-U1532; Population morphometrics of the Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis related to Sea Surface Temperature; U-Pb zircon and apatite fission track dates for IRD (ice-rafted cobbles and mineral grains) from IODP379 drill sites", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601828", "doi": "10.15784/601828", "keywords": "Amundsen Sea; Antarctica; Cryosphere; Geochronology; Marie Byrd Land; Subglacial Bedrock; Thermochronology", "people": "Siddoway, Christine", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "U-Pb zircon and apatite fission track dates for IRD (ice-rafted cobbles and mineral grains) from IODP379 drill sites", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601828"}, {"dataset_uid": "601769", "doi": null, "keywords": "Antarctica; Biogenic Silica; Diatom", "people": "Scherer, Reed Paul; Furlong, Heather", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Pliocene diatom abundance, IODP 379-U1532", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601769"}, {"dataset_uid": "601804", "doi": "10.15784/601804", "keywords": "Amundsen Sea; Antarctica; Cryosphere; Oceanography; Sabrina Coast; Sea Surface Temperature; Southern Ocean", "people": "Ruggiero, Joseph", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Population morphometrics of the Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis related to Sea Surface Temperature", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601804"}], "date_created": "Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Part I, Non-technical Abstract Concerns that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) might be susceptible to releasing its ice as giant icebergs into the Southern Ocean due to a warming climate, raising global sea level, were first expressed more than 40 years ago. To best-assess this threat, scientists need to know whether such events occurred in the geologically recent past, during warm intervals of past glacial-interglacial cycles. Ocean drilling near the most vulnerable sector of the WAIS, in 2019, yielded seafloor geologic records demonstrating times when icebergs dropped large volumes of sands and pebbles, called ice-rafted detritus (IRD) in deep water of the Amundsen Sea. Occurring together with IRD that was eroded from bedrock beneath the ice sheets, there are abundant microfossils of diatoms (algal plankton), which indicate high biological productivity in the open ocean. The new sediment cores provide a complete, uninterrupted record of a time of dramatic fluctuations of ice sheet extent that occurred over the last 3 million years. Therefore, they provide the means to obtain clear answers to the question whether ice sheet collapse occurred in the past and offering clues to its potential future. This project will investigate sediment intervals where IRD coincides with evidence of high diatom production, to test whether these two criteria indicate rapid ice sheet collapse. Geochemical analysis of IRD pebbles will help trace the source of the icebergs to likely on-land sites. By analyzing conditions of high diatom and IRD accumulation in deep ocean sediment, where local coastal influences can be avoided, we will assess oceanographic and climatic conditions associated with past ice sheet collapse events. Diatoms provide powerful evidence of temperature and ocean productivity changes in the past, that, when linked to time, can translate into rates of ice sheet drawdown. These results will provide critical data for designing, constraining and testing the next suite computer models that can determine the likelihood and timing of future ice sheet collapse in a warming world. The project will include training of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds, and the public will be introduced to Antarctic science and engaged through several different outreach efforts. Part 2, Technical Abstract New drillcores from the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica (IODP Expedition 379) contain a continuous record of oceanographic changes and iceberg rafted debris (IRD) spanning the last 5 million years. This study aims to identify the signature of retreat/collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) in these continental margin, deep-sea sediments by quantitatively analyzing, in detail, diatom and IRD records across glacial-interglacial lithostratigraphic transitions to establish the timing and frequency of Late Pliocene and Pleistocene WAIS collapse events. The investigators will secure age constraints and diagnostic observations of marine paleoenvironmental conditions for selected interglacial intervals of cores from sites U1532 and U1533, using high resolution micropaleontology of diatom assemblages coupled with microstratigraphic analysis of IRD depositional events, while petrography, geochronology and thermochronology of iceberg rafted clasts will provide evidence of iceberg sources and pathways. Depositional paleotemperatures will be assessed via a new paleotemperature proxy based on quantitative assessment of morphologic changes in the dominant Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis. Their results will contribute to parameterization of new ice sheet models that seek to reconstruct and forecast West Antarctic Ice Sheet behavior. This project will directly contribute to undergraduate education at an undergraduate-only college and at a public university that serves a demographic typified by first generation university students and underrepresented groups. Spanning geology, geochemistry, sedimentology, paleontology and paleoceanography, the proposed work will allow undergraduate students to develop diverse skills through hands-on research within a collaborative team that is dedicated to societally relevant research. The two graduate students will conduct original research and work alongside/mentor undergraduates, making for a well-rounded research experience that prepares them for success in future academic or employment sectors. The discoveries that come from this deep-sea record from West Antarctica will be communicated by students and investigators at national and international conferences and an array of public science outreach events. This award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": -95.0, "geometry": "POINT(-107.5 -71.5)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "ICEBERGS; SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE; Amundsen Sea; MICROFOSSILS", "locations": "Amundsen Sea", "north": -66.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": "PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e QUATERNARY; PHANEROZOIC \u003e CENOZOIC \u003e NEOGENE \u003e PLIOCENE", "persons": "Scherer, Reed Paul; Siddoway, Christine", "platforms": null, "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": -77.0, "title": "Collaborative Research: Testing the Linchpin of WAIS Collapse with Diatoms and IRD in Pleistocene and Late Pliocene Strata of the Resolution Drift, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica", "uid": "p0010451", "west": -120.0}, {"awards": "2020728 Huber, Brian; 2026648 Tobin, Thomas; 2025724 Harwood, David", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-56.93 -64.2,-56.894 -64.2,-56.858 -64.2,-56.822 -64.2,-56.786 -64.2,-56.75 -64.2,-56.714 -64.2,-56.678 -64.2,-56.642 -64.2,-56.606 -64.2,-56.57 -64.2,-56.57 -64.214,-56.57 -64.22800000000001,-56.57 -64.242,-56.57 -64.256,-56.57 -64.27000000000001,-56.57 -64.284,-56.57 -64.298,-56.57 -64.312,-56.57 -64.32600000000001,-56.57 -64.34,-56.606 -64.34,-56.642 -64.34,-56.678 -64.34,-56.714 -64.34,-56.75 -64.34,-56.786 -64.34,-56.822 -64.34,-56.858 -64.34,-56.894 -64.34,-56.93 -64.34,-56.93 -64.32600000000001,-56.93 -64.312,-56.93 -64.298,-56.93 -64.284,-56.93 -64.27000000000001,-56.93 -64.256,-56.93 -64.242,-56.93 -64.22800000000001,-56.93 -64.214,-56.93 -64.2))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 15 Sep 2022 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Non-technical description: This 4-year project is evaluating evidence of extinction patterns and depositional conditions from a high southern latitude Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) outcrop section found on Seymore Island, in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The team is using sediment samples collected below the weathering horizon to evaluate detailed sedimentary structures, geochemistry, and microfossils in targeted stratigraphic intervals. The study will help determine if the K-Pg mass extinction was a single or double phased event and whether Seymour Island region in the geological past was a restricted, suboxic marine environment or an open well-mixed shelf. The award includes an integrated plan for student training at all levels, enhanced by a highlighted partnership with a high school earth sciences teacher working in a school serving underrepresented students. Technical description: The proposed research is applying multiple techniques to address an overarching research question for which recent studies are in disagreement: Is the fossil evidence from a unique outcropping on Seymour Island, Antarctica consistent with a single or double phased extinction? In a two-phased model, the first extinction would affect primarily benthic organisms and would have occurred ~150 kiloyears prior to a separate extinction at the K-Pg boundary. However, this early extinction could plausibly be explained by an unrecognized facies control that is obscured by surficial weathering. This team is using microfossil evidence with detailed sedimentary petrology and geochemistry data to evaluate if the fossil evidence from Seymour Island is consistent with a single or double phased extinction process. The team is using detailed sedimentary petrology and geochemistry methods to test for facies changes across the K-PG interval that would explain the apparent early extinction. Samples of core sedimentary foraminifera, siliceous microfossils, and calcareous nannofossils are being evaluated to provide a high-resolution stratigraphic resolution and to evaluate whether evidence for an early extinction is present. Additionally, the team is using multiple geochemical methods to evaluate whether there is evidence for intermittent anoxia or euxinia and/or physical restriction of the Seymore region basin. Data from this analysis will indicate if this region was a restricted, suboxic marine environment or an open well-mixed shelf. This award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": -56.57, "geometry": "POINT(-56.75 -64.27000000000001)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Seymour Island; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; SEDIMENTARY ROCKS; MICROFOSSILS; FIELD INVESTIGATION", "locations": "Seymour Island", "north": -64.2, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Organisms and Ecosystems; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Tobin, Thomas; Totten, Rebecca", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD INVESTIGATION", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -64.34, "title": "Collaborative Research: Coring Seymour Island (CSI) Antarctica: Evaluating Causes and Effects of the End Cretaceous Mass Extinction", "uid": "p0010377", "west": -56.93}, {"awards": "2114786 Warnock, Jonathan", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 09 Sep 2021 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The potential for future sea level rise from melting and collapse of Antarctic ice sheets and glaciers is concerning. We can improve our understanding of how water is exchanged between Antarctic ice sheets and the ocean by studying how ice sheets behaved in past climates, especially conditions that were similar to or warmer than those at present. For this project, the research team will document Antarctica\u2019s response across an interval when Earth transitioned from the warm Pliocene into the Pleistocene ice ages by combining marine and land evidence for glacier variations from sites near the Antarctic Peninsula, complimented by detailed work on timescales and fossil evidence for environmental change. An important goal is to test whether Antarctica\u2019s glaciers changed at the same time as glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere as Earth\u0027s most recent Ice Age intensified, or alternatively responded to regional climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere. Eleven investigators from seven US institutions, as well as Argentine collaborators, will study new sediment cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program, as well as legacy cores from that program and on-land outcrops on James Ross Island. The group embraces a vertically integrated research program that allows high school, undergraduate, graduate, post-docs and faculty to work together on the same projects. This structure leverages the benefits of near-peer mentoring and the development of a robust collaborative research network while allowing all participants to take ownership of different parts of the project. All members of the team are firmly committed to attracting researchers from under-represented groups and will do this through existing channels as well as via co-creating programming that centers the perspectives of diverse students in conversations about sea-level rise and climate change. The proposed research seeks to understand phasing between Northern and Southern Hemisphere glacier and climate changes, as a means to understand drivers and teleconnections. The dynamics of past Antarctic glaciation can be studied using the unique isotope geochemical and mineralogic fingerprints from glacial sectors tied to a well-constrained time model for the stratigraphic successions. The proposed work would further refine the stratigraphic context through coupled biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic work. The magnitude of iceberg calving and paths of icebergs will be revealed using the flux, geochemical and mineralogic signatures, and 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb geochronology of ice-rafted detritus. These provenance tracers will establish which sectors of Antarctica\u2019s ice sheets are more vulnerable to collapse, and the timing and pacing of these events will be revealed by their stratigraphic context. Additionally, the team will work with Argentine collaborators to connect the marine and terrestrial records by studying glacier records intercalated with volcanic flows on James Ross Island. These new constraints will be integrated with a state of the art ice-sheet model to link changes in ice dynamics with their underlying causes. Together, these tight stratigraphic constraints, geochemical signatures, and ice-sheet model simulations will provide a means to compare to the global records of climate change, understand their primary drivers, and elucidate the role of the Antarctic ice sheet in a major, global climatic shift from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene. This award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "MICROFOSSILS; FIELD SURVEYS; Weddell Sea Embayment; USA/NSF; SEA ICE; USAP-DC; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE; AMD; Amd/Us", "locations": "Weddell Sea Embayment", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Warnock, Jonathan", "platforms": "LAND-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e FIELD SITES \u003e FIELD SURVEYS", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Collaborative Research: Linking Marine and Terrestrial Sedimentary Evidence for Plio-pleistocene Variability of Weddell Embayment and Antarctic Peninsula Glaciation", "uid": "p0010260", "west": null}, {"awards": "1908399 Bizimis, Michael; 1908548 Feakins, Sarah", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((74.787 -67.27617,74.816483 -67.27617,74.845966 -67.27617,74.875449 -67.27617,74.904932 -67.27617,74.934415 -67.27617,74.963898 -67.27617,74.993381 -67.27617,75.022864 -67.27617,75.052347 -67.27617,75.08183 -67.27617,75.08183 -67.31817,75.08183 -67.36017,75.08183 -67.40217,75.08183 -67.44417,75.08183 -67.48617,75.08183 -67.52817,75.08183 -67.57017,75.08183 -67.61217,75.08183 -67.65417,75.08183 -67.69617,75.052347 -67.69617,75.022864 -67.69617,74.993381 -67.69617,74.963898 -67.69617,74.934415 -67.69617,74.904932 -67.69617,74.875449 -67.69617,74.845966 -67.69617,74.816483 -67.69617,74.787 -67.69617,74.787 -67.65417,74.787 -67.61217,74.787 -67.57017,74.787 -67.52817,74.787 -67.48617,74.787 -67.44417,74.787 -67.40217,74.787 -67.36017,74.787 -67.31817,74.787 -67.27617))", "dataset_titles": "Ejtibbett/EOTproxymodel: Proxy Model Comparison for the Eocene-Oligocene Transition [Computational Notebook]; Paleoceanography and biomarker data from the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 37-3 million years; Prydz Bay East Antarctica, biomarkers and pollen, 36-33 million years; Sabrina Coast East Antarctica, Pollen and Biomarker Data from 59-38 million years ago; Southern High Latitude Temperature Proxies from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene [Dataset]", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "200317", "doi": "10.25921/n9kg-yw91", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCEI", "science_program": null, "title": "Paleoceanography and biomarker data from the Antarctic Peninsula over the past 37-3 million years", "url": "https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/paleo-search/study/35613"}, {"dataset_uid": "200335", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.7254536", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Zenodo", "science_program": null, "title": "Southern High Latitude Temperature Proxies from the Late Eocene and Early Oligocene [Dataset]", "url": "https://zenodo.org/record/7254536#.Y2BLgOTMI2w"}, {"dataset_uid": "200334", "doi": "10.5281/zenodo.7254786", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "Zenodo", "science_program": null, "title": "Ejtibbett/EOTproxymodel: Proxy Model Comparison for the Eocene-Oligocene Transition [Computational Notebook]", "url": "https://zenodo.org/record/7254786#.Y2BLAeTMI2w"}, {"dataset_uid": "200206", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCEI", "science_program": null, "title": "Prydz Bay East Antarctica, biomarkers and pollen, 36-33 million years", "url": "https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo-search/study/32052"}, {"dataset_uid": "200259", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "NCEI", "science_program": null, "title": "Sabrina Coast East Antarctica, Pollen and Biomarker Data from 59-38 million years ago", "url": "https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/study/34772"}], "date_created": "Sat, 05 Dec 2020 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "The East Antarctic Ice Sheet holds the largest volume of freshwater on the planet, in total enough to raise sea level by almost two hundred feet. Even minor adjustments in the volume of ice stored have major implications for coastlines and climates around the world. The question motivating this project is how did the ice grow to cover the continent over thirty million years ago when Antarctica changed from a warmer environment to an ice-covered southern continent? The seafloor of Prydz Bay, a major drainage basin of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), has been drilled previously to recover sediments dating from millions of years prior to and across the time when inception of continental ice sheets occurred in Antarctica. The last remnants of plant material found as \u0027biomarkers\u0027 in the ocean sediments record the chemical signatures of rain and snowfall that fed the plants and later the expanding glaciers. Sediment carried by glaciers was also deposited on the seafloor and can be analyzed to discover how glaciers flowed across the landscape. Here, the researchers will identify precipitation changes that result from, and drive, ice sheet growth. This study will gather data and further analyze samples from the seafloor sediment archives of the International Ocean Discovery Program\u0027s (IODP) core repositories. Ultimately these findings can help inform temperature-precipitation-ice linkages within climate and ice sheet models. The project will support the training of three female, early career scientists (PhD \u0026 MS students, and research technician) and both PIs and the PhD student will continue their engagement with broadening participation efforts (e.g., Women in Science and Engineering Program; local chapters of Society for the advancement of Native Americans and Chicanos in Science and other access programs) to recruit undergraduate student participants from underrepresented minorities at both campuses and from local community colleges. Antarctic earth science education materials will be assisted by professional illustrations to be open access and used in public education and communication efforts to engage local communities in Los Angeles CA and Columbia SC. The researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of South Carolina will together study the penultimate moment of the early Cenozoic greenhouse climate state: the ~4 million years of global cooling that culminated in the Eocene/Oligocene transition (~34 Ma). Significant gaps remain in the understanding of the conditions that preceded ice expansion on Antarctica. In particular, the supply of raw material for ice sheets (i.e., moisture) and the timing, frequency, and duration of precursor glaciations is poorly constrained. This collaborative proposal combines organic and inorganic proxies to examine how Antarctic hydroclimate changed during the greenhouse to icehouse transition. The central hypothesis is that the hydrological cycle weakened as cooling proceeded. Plant-wax hydrogen and carbon isotopes (hydroclimate proxies) and Hf-Nd isotopes of lithogenous and hydrogenous sediments (mechanical weathering proxies) respond strongly and rapidly to precipitation and glacial advance. This detailed and sensitive combined approach will test whether there were hidden glaciations (and/or warm events) that punctuated the pre-icehouse interval. Studies will be conducted on Prydz Bay marine sediment cores in a depositional area for products of weathering and erosion that were (and are) transported through Lambert Graben from the center of Antarctica. The project will yield proxy information about the presence of plants and the hydroclimate of Antarctica and the timing of glacial advance, and is expected to show drying associated with cooling and ice-sheet growth. The dual approach will untangle climate signals from changes in fluvial versus glacial erosion of plant biomarkers. This proposal is potentially transformative because the combination of organic and inorganic proxies can reveal rapid transitions in aridity and glacial expansion, that may have been missed in slower-response proxies and more distal archives. The research is significant as hydroclimate seems to be a key player in the temperature-cryosphere hysteresis. This award reflects NSF\u0027s statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation\u0027s intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.", "east": 75.08183, "geometry": "POINT(74.934415 -67.48617)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "MICROFOSSILS; Prydz Bay; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; Sabrina Coast; DROUGHT/PRECIPITATION RECONSTRUCTION; ISOTOPES; AIR TEMPERATURE RECONSTRUCTION", "locations": "Prydz Bay; Sabrina Coast", "north": -67.27617, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences; Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Feakins, Sarah; Scher, Howard", "platforms": null, "repo": "NCEI", "repositories": "NCEI; Zenodo", "science_programs": null, "south": -67.69617, "title": "Collaborative Research: Organic and Inorganic Geochemical Investigation of Hydrologic Change in East Antarctica in the 4 Million Years Before Full Glaciation", "uid": "p0010143", "west": 74.787}, {"awards": "1246357 Bart, Philip", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": "NBP1502 Cruise Geophysics and underway data; NBP1502 YoYo camera benthic images from Ross Sea", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601182", "doi": "10.15784/601182", "keywords": "Antarctica; Benthic; Benthic Images; Benthos; Bentic Fauna; Camera Tow; Marine Geoscience; Marine Sediments; NBP1502; Photo; Photo/video; Photo/Video; Ross Sea; R/v Nathaniel B. Palmer; Southern Ocean; Yoyo Camera", "people": "Bart, Philip", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "NBP1502 YoYo camera benthic images from Ross Sea", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601182"}, {"dataset_uid": "000245", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "NBP1502 Cruise Geophysics and underway data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP1502"}], "date_created": "Mon, 03 Jun 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Intellectual Merit: Evidence from the eastern Ross Sea continental shelf indicates that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet advanced and retreated during the last glacial cycle, but it is unclear whether the ice sheet advanced to the shelf edge or just to the middle shelf. These two end-member scenarios offer different interpretations as to why, how, and when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet oscillated. The PI proposes to acquire seismic, multibeam, and core data from Whales Deep, to evaluate the timing and duration of two advances of grounded ice to the outer and middle shelf of the Whales Deep Basin, a West Antarctic Ice Sheet paleo ice stream trough in eastern Ross Sea. Grounding events are represented by seismically resolvable Grounding Zone Wedges. The PI will collect radiocarbon dates on in situ benthic foraminifera from the grounding zone diamict as well as ramped pyrolysis radiocarbon dates on acid insoluble organics from open-marine mud overlying the grounding zone diamict. Using these data the PI will calculate the duration of the two grounding events. Furthermore, the PI will test a numerical model prediction that West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat must have involved melting at the marine terminus of the ice sheet. Pore-water from the grounding zone diamict will be extracted from piston cores to determine salinity and \u0026#948;18O values that should indicate if significant melting occurred at the grounding line. Broader impacts: The data collected will provide constraints on the timing and pattern of Last Glacial Maximum advance and retreat that can be incorporated into interpretations of ice-surface elevation changes. The proposed activities will provide valuable field and research training to undergraduate/graduate students and a Louisiana high-school science teacher. The research will be interactively shared with middle- and high-school science students and with visitors to the LSU Museum of Natural Science Weekend-Science Program.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e AIRGUN ARRAYS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e SEISMIC REFLECTION PROFILERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e LONG STREAMERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e MSBS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CORERS \u003e CORING DEVICES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PHOTON/OPTICAL DETECTORS \u003e CAMERAS \u003e CAMERA; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e CHEMICAL METERS/ANALYZERS \u003e FLUOROMETERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e MAGNETIC/MOTION SENSORS \u003e GRAVIMETERS \u003e GRAVIMETERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e RECORDERS/LOGGERS \u003e AWS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e PASSIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e POSITIONING/NAVIGATION \u003e GPS \u003e GPS; EARTH REMOTE SENSING INSTRUMENTS \u003e ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e ECHO SOUNDERS; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e MBES; IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e THERMOSALINOGRAPHS", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "STRATIGRAPHIC SEQUENCE; R/V NBP; Ross Sea; Antarctica; MICROFOSSILS; RADIOCARBON; PALEOCLIMATE RECONSTRUCTIONS; SEDIMENTS; Southern Ocean; OCEANS; GEOSCIENTIFIC INFORMATION", "locations": "Antarctica; Ross Sea; Southern Ocean", "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Bart, Philip; Steinberg, Deborah", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V NBP", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "R2R; USAP-DC", "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "Timing and Duration of the LGM and Post-LGM Grounding Events in Whales Deep Paleo Ice Stream, Eastern Ross Sea Middle Continental Shelf", "uid": "p0000877", "west": null}, {"awards": "1544526 Omelon, Christopher", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((160 -76.5,160.37 -76.5,160.74 -76.5,161.11 -76.5,161.48 -76.5,161.85 -76.5,162.22 -76.5,162.59 -76.5,162.96 -76.5,163.33 -76.5,163.7 -76.5,163.7 -76.63,163.7 -76.76,163.7 -76.89,163.7 -77.02,163.7 -77.15,163.7 -77.28,163.7 -77.41,163.7 -77.54,163.7 -77.67,163.7 -77.8,163.33 -77.8,162.96 -77.8,162.59 -77.8,162.22 -77.8,161.85 -77.8,161.48 -77.8,161.11 -77.8,160.74 -77.8,160.37 -77.8,160 -77.8,160 -77.67,160 -77.54,160 -77.41,160 -77.28,160 -77.15,160 -77.02,160 -76.89,160 -76.76,160 -76.63,160 -76.5))", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Thu, 09 May 2019 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Cryptoendoliths are organisms that colonize microscopic cavities of rocks, which give them protection and allow them to inhabit extreme environments, such as the cold, arid desert of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Fossilized cryptoendoliths preserve the forms and features of organisms from the past and thus provide a unique opportunity to study the organisms? life histories and environments. To study this fossil record, there needs to be a better understanding of what environmental conditions allow these fossils to form. A climate gradient currently exists in the Dry Valleys that allows us to study living, dead, and fossilized cryptoendoliths from mild to increasingly harsh environments; providing insight to the limits of life and how these fossils are formed. This project will develop instruments to detect the biological activity of the live microorganisms and conduct laboratory experiments to determine the environmental limits of their survival. The project also will characterize the chemical and structural features of the living, dead, and fossilized cryptoendoliths to understand how they become fossilized. Knowing how microorganisms are preserved as fossils in cold and dry environments like Antarctica can help to refine methods that can be used to search for and identify evidence for extraterrestrial life in similar habitats on planets such as Mars. This project includes training of graduate and undergraduate students. Little is known about cryptoendolithic microfossils and their formation processes in cold, arid terrestrial habitats of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, where a legacy of activity is discernible in the form of biosignatures including inorganic materials and microbial fossils that preserve and indicate traces of past biological activity. The overarching goals of the proposed work are: (1) to determine how rates of microbial respiration and biodegradation of organic matter control microbial fossilization; and (2) to characterize microbial fossils and their living counterparts to elucidate mechanisms for fossilization. Using samples collected across an increasingly harsher (more cold and dry) climatic gradient that encompasses living, dead, and fossilized cryptoendolithic microorganisms, the proposed work will: (1) develop an instrument to be used in the field that can measure small concentrations of CO2 in cryptoendolithic habitats in situ; (2) conduct incubation experiments to target variations in microbial activity in samples containing living, dead, and fossilized microorganisms as well as limits to microbial activity by measuring CO2 evolution and delta13C signatures; and (3) use a suite of microscopy techniques (CLSM, cryo-SEM, FIB-SEM, \u00b5-XFM) to correlate laboratory experimental evidence for microbial viability and activity and to identify the chemical and morphological characteristics of biosignatures and microbial fossils. A metagenomic survey of microbial communities in these samples will be used to characterize differences in diversity, identify if specific microorganisms (e.g. prokaryotes, eukaryotes) are more capable of surviving under these harsh climatic conditions, and to corroborate microscopic observations of the viability states of these microorganisms.", "east": 163.7, "geometry": "POINT(161.85 -77.15)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "USAP-DC; Antarctica; NOT APPLICABLE; TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS", "locations": "Antarctica", "north": -76.5, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Omelon, Christopher; Breecker, Daniel; Bennett, Philip", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -77.8, "title": "Activity, Preservation and Fossilization of Cryptoendolithic Microorganisms in Antarctica", "uid": "p0010028", "west": 160.0}, {"awards": "1048343 Warny, Sophie", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60))", "dataset_titles": "Palynological samples list", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "601151", "doi": "10.15784/601151", "keywords": "Antarctica; Glaciology; Marine Geoscience; Marine Sediments; Microscope; Microscopy; Paleoclimate; Pollen", "people": "Warny, Sophie", "repository": "USAP-DC", "science_program": null, "title": "Palynological samples list", "url": "https://www.usap-dc.org/view/dataset/601151"}], "date_created": "Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Intellectual Merit: The PI proposes a high-resolution paleoenvironmental study of pollen, spore, fresh-water algae, and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages to investigate the palynological record of sudden warming events in the Antarctic as recorded by the ANDRILL SMS drill core and terrestrial sections. These data will be used to derive causal mechanisms for these rapid climate events. Terrestrial samples will be obtained at various altitudes in the Dry Valleys region. The pollen and spores will provide data on atmospheric conditions, while the algae will provide data on sea-surface conditions. These data will help identify the triggers for sudden climatic shifts. If they are caused by changes in oceanic currents, a signal will be visible in the dinocyst assemblages first as currents influence their distribution. Conversely, if these shifts are triggered by atmospheric factors, then the shifts will first affect plants and be visible in the pollen record. Broader impacts: The PI proposes a suite of activities to bring field-based climate change research to a broader audience. The PI will advise a diverse group of students and educators. The palynological data collected as part of this research will be utilized, in part, to develop new lectures on Antarctic palynology and these new lectures will be made available via a collaboration with the LSU HHMI program. In addition, the PI will direct three Louisiana middle-school teachers as they pursue a Masters of Natural Science for science educators. These teachers will help the PI develop a professional development program for science teachers. Community-based activities will be organized to raise science awareness and alert students and the public of opportunities in science.", "east": 180.0, "geometry": "POINT(0 -89.999)", "instruments": "NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "MICROFOSSILS; NOT APPLICABLE", "locations": null, "north": -60.0, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Warny, Sophie", "platforms": "OTHER \u003e NOT APPLICABLE \u003e NOT APPLICABLE", "repo": "USAP-DC", "repositories": "USAP-DC", "science_programs": "WISSARD; ANDRILL; SHALDRIL", "south": -75.0, "title": "CAREER: Deciphering Antarctic Climate Variability during the Temperate/Polar Transition and Improving Climate Change Literacy in Louisiana through a Companion Outreach Program", "uid": "p0000311", "west": -180.0}, {"awards": "9814692 Kellogg, Thomas", "bounds_geometry": "POLYGON((-179.99342 -58.74225,-143.994734 -58.74225,-107.996048 -58.74225,-71.997362 -58.74225,-35.998676 -58.74225,0.000010000000003 -58.74225,35.998696 -58.74225,71.997382 -58.74225,107.996068 -58.74225,143.994754 -58.74225,179.99344 -58.74225,179.99344 -60.716231,179.99344 -62.690212,179.99344 -64.664193,179.99344 -66.638174,179.99344 -68.612155,179.99344 -70.586136,179.99344 -72.560117,179.99344 -74.534098,179.99344 -76.508079,179.99344 -78.48206,143.994754 -78.48206,107.996068 -78.48206,71.997382 -78.48206,35.998696 -78.48206,0.000010000000003 -78.48206,-35.998676 -78.48206,-71.997362 -78.48206,-107.996048 -78.48206,-143.994734 -78.48206,-179.99342 -78.48206,-179.99342 -76.508079,-179.99342 -74.534098,-179.99342 -72.560117,-179.99342 -70.586136,-179.99342 -68.612155,-179.99342 -66.638174,-179.99342 -64.664193,-179.99342 -62.690212,-179.99342 -60.716231,-179.99342 -58.74225))", "dataset_titles": "Expedition Data", "datasets": [{"dataset_uid": "001992", "doi": "", "keywords": null, "people": null, "repository": "R2R", "science_program": null, "title": "Expedition Data", "url": "https://www.rvdata.us/search/cruise/NBP0001"}], "date_created": "Tue, 04 May 2010 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports a marine geological investigation of the Amundsen Sea region toward a better understanding of the deglaciation history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The WAIS may be inherently unstable because it is the last marine-based ice sheet in the world. Unlike other embayments in West Antarctica, major ice streams draining into the Amundsen Sea from the interior of the WAIS lack buttressing ice shelves. Mass balance data for the distal portions of these ice streams (Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers) appear to be in balance or may be becoming negative. Because both ice streams have beds that slope downward toward the center of the ice sheet, grounding-line recession resulting from either continued thinning or sea-level rise could trigger irreversible grounding-line retreat, leading to ice-sheet disintegration and consequent global sea-level rise. The limited marine geological and geophysical data available from the Amundsen Sea suggest that grounded ice or an ice shelf occupied the inner Amundsen Sea embayment until perhaps as recently as 1000 to 2000 years ago, and this ice may have retreated rapidly in historic time. This project, a study of the marine geology and geophysics of the Amundsen Sea continental shelf from 100 degrees W to 130 degrees W, is designed to address the Amundsen Sea part of WAIS Science Plan Priority Goal H2: \"What is the deglaciation history in the eastern Ross, the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas?\" This project will examine bathymetric data of the Amundsen Sea continental shelf to determine the positions of former ice-steam channels, and to aid in choosing sites for sediment coring. Single-channel seismic reflection studies will be conducted in order to determine sediment-thickness patterns, to aid in choice of coring sites, and to locate and identify morphologic features indicative of former grounded ice (e.g., moraines, scours, flutes, striations, till wedges and deltas, etc.). Coring will be concentrated along former ice flow-lines. Core samples will be analyzed in the laboratory for sedimentology, to determine whether of not basal tills are present (indicating former grounded ice and its former extent), and for calcareous and siliceous microfossils. The chronology of grounding-line and ice-shelf retreat from a presumed Last Glacial Maximum position near the shelf break will be established using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) carbon-14 dates of acid-insoluble particulate organic carbon. This project will share ship time in the Amundsen Sea with a physical oceanographic project. Marine geologic data and samples collected will be integrated with findings of other investigators toward developing a comprehensive interpretation of the history of the WAIS.", "east": 179.99344, "geometry": "POINT(0.000010000000003 -68.612155)", "instruments": "IN SITU/LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS \u003e PROFILERS/SOUNDERS \u003e ACOUSTIC SOUNDERS \u003e MSBS", "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "R/V NBP", "locations": null, "north": -58.74225, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Kellogg, Thomas; Jacobs, Stanley", "platforms": "WATER-BASED PLATFORMS \u003e VESSELS \u003e SURFACE \u003e R/V NBP", "repo": "R2R", "repositories": "R2R", "science_programs": null, "south": -78.48206, "title": "Glacial History of the Amundsen Sea Shelf", "uid": "p0000620", "west": -179.99342}, {"awards": "0636747 Warny, Sophie", "bounds_geometry": "POINT(-54.44917 -63.86)", "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "Abstract\u003cbr/\u003eThis project studies microfossils of plants and algae to understand climate during the earliest glaciations of Antarctica. The microfossils are from marine sediment cores collected by the 2006 SHALDRIL campaign to the Antarctic Peninsula. The work will offer constraints on sea surface temperature, ocean salinity, and terrestrial vegetation to help answer questions such as: What were conditions like on the Antarctic Peninsula during the initial formation of Antarctica\u0027s ice sheets? How rapidly did the ice sheets grow? Was their growth driven by global factors such as low atmospheric CO2 or local events like opening of the Drake Passage? \u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe broader impacts include postdoctoral fellow research and outreach via a museum exhibit and a web-based activity book for children.", "east": -54.44917, "geometry": "POINT(-54.44917 -63.86)", "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": true, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": -63.86, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Warny, Sophie", "platforms": "Not provided", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": -63.86, "title": "Past Environmental Conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula: a Palynological Characterization of In-situ Sediments recovered during the 2006 SHALDRIL campaign", "uid": "p0000484", "west": -54.44917}, {"awards": "0230469 Wise, Sherwood", "bounds_geometry": null, "dataset_titles": null, "datasets": null, "date_created": "Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT", "description": "This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports the development of a standardized diatom image catalog or database. Diatoms are considered by many to be the most important microfossil group used today in the study of Antarctic Cenozoic marine deposits south of the Polar Front, from the near shore to deep sea. These microfossils, with walls of silica called frustules, are produced by single-celled plants (algae of the Class Bacillariophyceae) in a great variety of forms. Consequently, they have great biostratigraphic importance in the Southern Ocean and elsewhere for determining the age of marine sediments. Also, paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic studies increasingly rely on fossil diatom data. Changing biogeographic distributions of given taxa indicate shifting paleoecological conditions and provide evidence of the surface productivity and temperatures of ancient oceans. The generality of conclusions, though, is limited by variation in species concepts among workers. The broad research community relies, directly or indirectly, on the accurate identification of diatom species. Current technology can be used to greatly improve upon the standard references that have been used in making these identifications.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThis project will develop an interactive digital-image catalog of modern and Cenozoic fossil diatoms of the Southern Ocean called \"DiatomWare\" for use by specialists and educators as an aid in rapid, accurate, and consistent species identification. As such, this will be a researcher\u0027s resource. It will be especially useful where it is not possible to maintain standard library resources such as onboard research vessels or at remote stations such as McMurdo Station. Major Antarctic geological drilling initiatives such as the new SHALDRIL project and the pending ANDRILL project will benefit from this product because they will rely heavily on diatom biostratigraphy to achieve their research objectives. The DiatomWare image database will be modeled on NannoWare, which was released in October 2002 on CD-ROM as a publication of the International Nannoplankton Association. BugCam will be adapted and modified as necessary to run the DiatomWare database, which can then be run from desktop or laptop computers. Images and text for the database will be scanned from the literature or captured in digital form from light or scanning electron microscopes.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe software interface will include a number of data fields that can be accessed by the click of a mouse button. Primary information will be the images and descriptions of the holotypes. In addition, representative images of paratypes or hypotypes will be included whenever possible in plain transmitted, differential interference contrast light and, when available, as drawings and SEM images. Also included will be a 35-word or less English diagnosis (\"mini-description\"), the biostratigraphic range in terms of zones and linear time, bibliographic references, lists of species considered junior synonyms, and similar species. The list of similar species will be cross-referenced with their respective image files to enable quick access for direct visual comparison on the viewing screen. Multiple images can be brought to the viewing screen simultaneously, and a zoom feature will permit image examination at a wide range of magnifications. Buttons will allow range charts, a bibliography, and key public-domain publications from the literature to be called up from within the program. The DiatomWare/BugCam package will be distributed at a nominal cost through a major nonprofit society via CD-ROM and free to Internet users on the Worldwide Web. Quality control measures will include critical review of the finalized database by a network of qualified specialists. The completed database will include descriptions and images of between 350 and 400 species, including fossil as well as modern forms that have no fossil record.\u003cbr/\u003e\u003cbr/\u003eThe development of the proposed diatom image database will be important to all research fields that depend on accurate biostratigraphic dating and paleoenvironmental interpretation of Antarctic marine sediments and plankton. The database will also serve as a valuable teaching tool for micropaleontology students and their professors, will provide a rapid means of keying down species for micropaleontologists of varying experience and background, and will promote a uniformity of taxonomic concepts since it will be developed and continuously updated with the advice of a community of nannofossil fossil experts. Broad use of the database is anticipated since it will be widely available through the Internet and on CD-ROM for use on personal computers that do not require large amounts of memory, costly specialized programs, or additional hardware.", "east": null, "geometry": null, "instruments": null, "is_usap_dc": false, "keywords": "Not provided", "locations": null, "north": null, "nsf_funding_programs": "Antarctic Earth Sciences", "paleo_time": null, "persons": "Wise, Sherwood", "platforms": "Not provided", "repositories": null, "science_programs": null, "south": null, "title": "DiatomWare: An Interactive Digital Image Catalog for Antarctic Cenozoic Diatoms", "uid": "p0000062", "west": null}]
X
X
Help on the Results MapX
This window can be dragged by its header, and can be resized from the bottom right corner.
Clicking the Layers button - the blue square in the top left of the Results Map - will display a list of map layers you can add or remove
from the currently displayed map view.
The Results Map and the Results Table
- The Results Map displays the centroids of the geographic bounds of all the results returned by the search.
- Results that are displayed in the current map view will be highlighted in blue and brought to the top of the Results Table.
- As the map is panned or zoomed, the highlighted rows in the table will update.
- If you click on a centroid on the map, it will turn yellow and display a popup with details for that project/dataset - including a link to the landing page. The bounds for the project(s)/dataset(s) selected will be displayed in red. The selected result(s) will be highlighted in red and brought to the top of the table.
- The default table sorting order is: Selected, Visible, Date (descending), but this can be changed by clicking on column headers in the table.
- Selecting Show on Map for an individual row will both display the geographic bounds for that result on a mini map, and also display the bounds and highlight the centroid on the Results Map.
- Clicking the 'Show boundaries' checkbox at the top of the Results Map will display all the bounds for the filtered results.
Defining a search area on the Results Map
- If you click on the Rectangle or Polygon icons in the top right of the Results Map, you can define a search area which will be added to any other search criteria already selected.
- After you have drawn a polygon, you can edit it using the Edit Geometry dropdown in the search form at the top.
- Clicking Clear in the map will clear any drawn polygon.
- Clicking Search in the map, or Search on the form will have the same effect.
- The returned results will be any projects/datasets with bounds that intersect the polygon.
- Use the Exclude project/datasets checkbox to exclude any projects/datasets that cover the whole Antarctic region.
Viewing map layers on the Results Map
Older retrieved projects from AMD. Warning: many have incomplete information.
To sort the table of search results, click the header of the column you wish to search by. To sort by multiple columns, hold down the shift key whilst selecting the sort columns in order.
Project Title/Abstract/Map | NSF Award(s) | Date Created | PIs / Scientists | Dataset Links and Repositories | Abstract | Bounds Geometry | Geometry | Selected | Visible | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Collaborative Research: Testing the Linchpin of WAIS Collapse with Diatoms and IRD in Pleistocene and Late Pliocene Strata of the Resolution Drift, Amundsen Sea, Antarctica
|
1939139 1939146 |
2024-02-20 | Scherer, Reed Paul; Siddoway, Christine | Part I, Non-technical Abstract Concerns that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) might be susceptible to releasing its ice as giant icebergs into the Southern Ocean due to a warming climate, raising global sea level, were first expressed more than 40 years ago. To best-assess this threat, scientists need to know whether such events occurred in the geologically recent past, during warm intervals of past glacial-interglacial cycles. Ocean drilling near the most vulnerable sector of the WAIS, in 2019, yielded seafloor geologic records demonstrating times when icebergs dropped large volumes of sands and pebbles, called ice-rafted detritus (IRD) in deep water of the Amundsen Sea. Occurring together with IRD that was eroded from bedrock beneath the ice sheets, there are abundant microfossils of diatoms (algal plankton), which indicate high biological productivity in the open ocean. The new sediment cores provide a complete, uninterrupted record of a time of dramatic fluctuations of ice sheet extent that occurred over the last 3 million years. Therefore, they provide the means to obtain clear answers to the question whether ice sheet collapse occurred in the past and offering clues to its potential future. This project will investigate sediment intervals where IRD coincides with evidence of high diatom production, to test whether these two criteria indicate rapid ice sheet collapse. Geochemical analysis of IRD pebbles will help trace the source of the icebergs to likely on-land sites. By analyzing conditions of high diatom and IRD accumulation in deep ocean sediment, where local coastal influences can be avoided, we will assess oceanographic and climatic conditions associated with past ice sheet collapse events. Diatoms provide powerful evidence of temperature and ocean productivity changes in the past, that, when linked to time, can translate into rates of ice sheet drawdown. These results will provide critical data for designing, constraining and testing the next suite computer models that can determine the likelihood and timing of future ice sheet collapse in a warming world. The project will include training of undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds, and the public will be introduced to Antarctic science and engaged through several different outreach efforts. Part 2, Technical Abstract New drillcores from the Amundsen Sea, Antarctica (IODP Expedition 379) contain a continuous record of oceanographic changes and iceberg rafted debris (IRD) spanning the last 5 million years. This study aims to identify the signature of retreat/collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) in these continental margin, deep-sea sediments by quantitatively analyzing, in detail, diatom and IRD records across glacial-interglacial lithostratigraphic transitions to establish the timing and frequency of Late Pliocene and Pleistocene WAIS collapse events. The investigators will secure age constraints and diagnostic observations of marine paleoenvironmental conditions for selected interglacial intervals of cores from sites U1532 and U1533, using high resolution micropaleontology of diatom assemblages coupled with microstratigraphic analysis of IRD depositional events, while petrography, geochronology and thermochronology of iceberg rafted clasts will provide evidence of iceberg sources and pathways. Depositional paleotemperatures will be assessed via a new paleotemperature proxy based on quantitative assessment of morphologic changes in the dominant Southern Ocean diatom Fragilariopsis kerguelensis. Their results will contribute to parameterization of new ice sheet models that seek to reconstruct and forecast West Antarctic Ice Sheet behavior. This project will directly contribute to undergraduate education at an undergraduate-only college and at a public university that serves a demographic typified by first generation university students and underrepresented groups. Spanning geology, geochemistry, sedimentology, paleontology and paleoceanography, the proposed work will allow undergraduate students to develop diverse skills through hands-on research within a collaborative team that is dedicated to societally relevant research. The two graduate students will conduct original research and work alongside/mentor undergraduates, making for a well-rounded research experience that prepares them for success in future academic or employment sectors. The discoveries that come from this deep-sea record from West Antarctica will be communicated by students and investigators at national and international conferences and an array of public science outreach events. 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. | POLYGON((-120 -66,-117.5 -66,-115 -66,-112.5 -66,-110 -66,-107.5 -66,-105 -66,-102.5 -66,-100 -66,-97.5 -66,-95 -66,-95 -67.1,-95 -68.2,-95 -69.3,-95 -70.4,-95 -71.5,-95 -72.6,-95 -73.7,-95 -74.8,-95 -75.9,-95 -77,-97.5 -77,-100 -77,-102.5 -77,-105 -77,-107.5 -77,-110 -77,-112.5 -77,-115 -77,-117.5 -77,-120 -77,-120 -75.9,-120 -74.8,-120 -73.7,-120 -72.6,-120 -71.5,-120 -70.4,-120 -69.3,-120 -68.2,-120 -67.1,-120 -66)) | POINT(-107.5 -71.5) | false | false | ||||||
Collaborative Research: Coring Seymour Island (CSI) Antarctica: Evaluating Causes and Effects of the End Cretaceous Mass Extinction
|
2020728 2026648 2025724 |
2022-09-15 | Tobin, Thomas; Totten, Rebecca | No dataset link provided | Non-technical description: This 4-year project is evaluating evidence of extinction patterns and depositional conditions from a high southern latitude Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) outcrop section found on Seymore Island, in the Western Antarctic Peninsula. The team is using sediment samples collected below the weathering horizon to evaluate detailed sedimentary structures, geochemistry, and microfossils in targeted stratigraphic intervals. The study will help determine if the K-Pg mass extinction was a single or double phased event and whether Seymour Island region in the geological past was a restricted, suboxic marine environment or an open well-mixed shelf. The award includes an integrated plan for student training at all levels, enhanced by a highlighted partnership with a high school earth sciences teacher working in a school serving underrepresented students. Technical description: The proposed research is applying multiple techniques to address an overarching research question for which recent studies are in disagreement: Is the fossil evidence from a unique outcropping on Seymour Island, Antarctica consistent with a single or double phased extinction? In a two-phased model, the first extinction would affect primarily benthic organisms and would have occurred ~150 kiloyears prior to a separate extinction at the K-Pg boundary. However, this early extinction could plausibly be explained by an unrecognized facies control that is obscured by surficial weathering. This team is using microfossil evidence with detailed sedimentary petrology and geochemistry data to evaluate if the fossil evidence from Seymour Island is consistent with a single or double phased extinction process. The team is using detailed sedimentary petrology and geochemistry methods to test for facies changes across the K-PG interval that would explain the apparent early extinction. Samples of core sedimentary foraminifera, siliceous microfossils, and calcareous nannofossils are being evaluated to provide a high-resolution stratigraphic resolution and to evaluate whether evidence for an early extinction is present. Additionally, the team is using multiple geochemical methods to evaluate whether there is evidence for intermittent anoxia or euxinia and/or physical restriction of the Seymore region basin. Data from this analysis will indicate if this region was a restricted, suboxic marine environment or an open well-mixed shelf. 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. | POLYGON((-56.93 -64.2,-56.894 -64.2,-56.858 -64.2,-56.822 -64.2,-56.786 -64.2,-56.75 -64.2,-56.714 -64.2,-56.678 -64.2,-56.642 -64.2,-56.606 -64.2,-56.57 -64.2,-56.57 -64.214,-56.57 -64.22800000000001,-56.57 -64.242,-56.57 -64.256,-56.57 -64.27000000000001,-56.57 -64.284,-56.57 -64.298,-56.57 -64.312,-56.57 -64.32600000000001,-56.57 -64.34,-56.606 -64.34,-56.642 -64.34,-56.678 -64.34,-56.714 -64.34,-56.75 -64.34,-56.786 -64.34,-56.822 -64.34,-56.858 -64.34,-56.894 -64.34,-56.93 -64.34,-56.93 -64.32600000000001,-56.93 -64.312,-56.93 -64.298,-56.93 -64.284,-56.93 -64.27000000000001,-56.93 -64.256,-56.93 -64.242,-56.93 -64.22800000000001,-56.93 -64.214,-56.93 -64.2)) | POINT(-56.75 -64.27000000000001) | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: Linking Marine and Terrestrial Sedimentary Evidence for Plio-pleistocene Variability of Weddell Embayment and Antarctic Peninsula Glaciation
|
2114786 |
2021-09-09 | Warnock, Jonathan | No dataset link provided | The potential for future sea level rise from melting and collapse of Antarctic ice sheets and glaciers is concerning. We can improve our understanding of how water is exchanged between Antarctic ice sheets and the ocean by studying how ice sheets behaved in past climates, especially conditions that were similar to or warmer than those at present. For this project, the research team will document Antarctica’s response across an interval when Earth transitioned from the warm Pliocene into the Pleistocene ice ages by combining marine and land evidence for glacier variations from sites near the Antarctic Peninsula, complimented by detailed work on timescales and fossil evidence for environmental change. An important goal is to test whether Antarctica’s glaciers changed at the same time as glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere as Earth's most recent Ice Age intensified, or alternatively responded to regional climate forcing in the Southern Hemisphere. Eleven investigators from seven US institutions, as well as Argentine collaborators, will study new sediment cores from the International Ocean Discovery Program, as well as legacy cores from that program and on-land outcrops on James Ross Island. The group embraces a vertically integrated research program that allows high school, undergraduate, graduate, post-docs and faculty to work together on the same projects. This structure leverages the benefits of near-peer mentoring and the development of a robust collaborative research network while allowing all participants to take ownership of different parts of the project. All members of the team are firmly committed to attracting researchers from under-represented groups and will do this through existing channels as well as via co-creating programming that centers the perspectives of diverse students in conversations about sea-level rise and climate change. The proposed research seeks to understand phasing between Northern and Southern Hemisphere glacier and climate changes, as a means to understand drivers and teleconnections. The dynamics of past Antarctic glaciation can be studied using the unique isotope geochemical and mineralogic fingerprints from glacial sectors tied to a well-constrained time model for the stratigraphic successions. The proposed work would further refine the stratigraphic context through coupled biostratigraphic and magnetostratigraphic work. The magnitude of iceberg calving and paths of icebergs will be revealed using the flux, geochemical and mineralogic signatures, and 40Ar/39Ar and U-Pb geochronology of ice-rafted detritus. These provenance tracers will establish which sectors of Antarctica’s ice sheets are more vulnerable to collapse, and the timing and pacing of these events will be revealed by their stratigraphic context. Additionally, the team will work with Argentine collaborators to connect the marine and terrestrial records by studying glacier records intercalated with volcanic flows on James Ross Island. These new constraints will be integrated with a state of the art ice-sheet model to link changes in ice dynamics with their underlying causes. Together, these tight stratigraphic constraints, geochemical signatures, and ice-sheet model simulations will provide a means to compare to the global records of climate change, understand their primary drivers, and elucidate the role of the Antarctic ice sheet in a major, global climatic shift from the Pliocene into the Pleistocene. 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. | None | None | false | false | |||||
Collaborative Research: Organic and Inorganic Geochemical Investigation of Hydrologic Change in East Antarctica in the 4 Million Years Before Full Glaciation
|
1908399 1908548 |
2020-12-05 | Feakins, Sarah; Scher, Howard | The East Antarctic Ice Sheet holds the largest volume of freshwater on the planet, in total enough to raise sea level by almost two hundred feet. Even minor adjustments in the volume of ice stored have major implications for coastlines and climates around the world. The question motivating this project is how did the ice grow to cover the continent over thirty million years ago when Antarctica changed from a warmer environment to an ice-covered southern continent? The seafloor of Prydz Bay, a major drainage basin of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), has been drilled previously to recover sediments dating from millions of years prior to and across the time when inception of continental ice sheets occurred in Antarctica. The last remnants of plant material found as 'biomarkers' in the ocean sediments record the chemical signatures of rain and snowfall that fed the plants and later the expanding glaciers. Sediment carried by glaciers was also deposited on the seafloor and can be analyzed to discover how glaciers flowed across the landscape. Here, the researchers will identify precipitation changes that result from, and drive, ice sheet growth. This study will gather data and further analyze samples from the seafloor sediment archives of the International Ocean Discovery Program's (IODP) core repositories. Ultimately these findings can help inform temperature-precipitation-ice linkages within climate and ice sheet models. The project will support the training of three female, early career scientists (PhD & MS students, and research technician) and both PIs and the PhD student will continue their engagement with broadening participation efforts (e.g., Women in Science and Engineering Program; local chapters of Society for the advancement of Native Americans and Chicanos in Science and other access programs) to recruit undergraduate student participants from underrepresented minorities at both campuses and from local community colleges. Antarctic earth science education materials will be assisted by professional illustrations to be open access and used in public education and communication efforts to engage local communities in Los Angeles CA and Columbia SC. The researchers at the University of Southern California and the University of South Carolina will together study the penultimate moment of the early Cenozoic greenhouse climate state: the ~4 million years of global cooling that culminated in the Eocene/Oligocene transition (~34 Ma). Significant gaps remain in the understanding of the conditions that preceded ice expansion on Antarctica. In particular, the supply of raw material for ice sheets (i.e., moisture) and the timing, frequency, and duration of precursor glaciations is poorly constrained. This collaborative proposal combines organic and inorganic proxies to examine how Antarctic hydroclimate changed during the greenhouse to icehouse transition. The central hypothesis is that the hydrological cycle weakened as cooling proceeded. Plant-wax hydrogen and carbon isotopes (hydroclimate proxies) and Hf-Nd isotopes of lithogenous and hydrogenous sediments (mechanical weathering proxies) respond strongly and rapidly to precipitation and glacial advance. This detailed and sensitive combined approach will test whether there were hidden glaciations (and/or warm events) that punctuated the pre-icehouse interval. Studies will be conducted on Prydz Bay marine sediment cores in a depositional area for products of weathering and erosion that were (and are) transported through Lambert Graben from the center of Antarctica. The project will yield proxy information about the presence of plants and the hydroclimate of Antarctica and the timing of glacial advance, and is expected to show drying associated with cooling and ice-sheet growth. The dual approach will untangle climate signals from changes in fluvial versus glacial erosion of plant biomarkers. This proposal is potentially transformative because the combination of organic and inorganic proxies can reveal rapid transitions in aridity and glacial expansion, that may have been missed in slower-response proxies and more distal archives. The research is significant as hydroclimate seems to be a key player in the temperature-cryosphere hysteresis. 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. | POLYGON((74.787 -67.27617,74.816483 -67.27617,74.845966 -67.27617,74.875449 -67.27617,74.904932 -67.27617,74.934415 -67.27617,74.963898 -67.27617,74.993381 -67.27617,75.022864 -67.27617,75.052347 -67.27617,75.08183 -67.27617,75.08183 -67.31817,75.08183 -67.36017,75.08183 -67.40217,75.08183 -67.44417,75.08183 -67.48617,75.08183 -67.52817,75.08183 -67.57017,75.08183 -67.61217,75.08183 -67.65417,75.08183 -67.69617,75.052347 -67.69617,75.022864 -67.69617,74.993381 -67.69617,74.963898 -67.69617,74.934415 -67.69617,74.904932 -67.69617,74.875449 -67.69617,74.845966 -67.69617,74.816483 -67.69617,74.787 -67.69617,74.787 -67.65417,74.787 -67.61217,74.787 -67.57017,74.787 -67.52817,74.787 -67.48617,74.787 -67.44417,74.787 -67.40217,74.787 -67.36017,74.787 -67.31817,74.787 -67.27617)) | POINT(74.934415 -67.48617) | false | false | ||||||
Timing and Duration of the LGM and Post-LGM Grounding Events in Whales Deep Paleo Ice Stream, Eastern Ross Sea Middle Continental Shelf
|
1246357 |
2019-06-03 | Bart, Philip; Steinberg, Deborah |
|
Intellectual Merit: Evidence from the eastern Ross Sea continental shelf indicates that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet advanced and retreated during the last glacial cycle, but it is unclear whether the ice sheet advanced to the shelf edge or just to the middle shelf. These two end-member scenarios offer different interpretations as to why, how, and when the West Antarctic Ice Sheet oscillated. The PI proposes to acquire seismic, multibeam, and core data from Whales Deep, to evaluate the timing and duration of two advances of grounded ice to the outer and middle shelf of the Whales Deep Basin, a West Antarctic Ice Sheet paleo ice stream trough in eastern Ross Sea. Grounding events are represented by seismically resolvable Grounding Zone Wedges. The PI will collect radiocarbon dates on in situ benthic foraminifera from the grounding zone diamict as well as ramped pyrolysis radiocarbon dates on acid insoluble organics from open-marine mud overlying the grounding zone diamict. Using these data the PI will calculate the duration of the two grounding events. Furthermore, the PI will test a numerical model prediction that West Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat must have involved melting at the marine terminus of the ice sheet. Pore-water from the grounding zone diamict will be extracted from piston cores to determine salinity and δ18O values that should indicate if significant melting occurred at the grounding line. Broader impacts: The data collected will provide constraints on the timing and pattern of Last Glacial Maximum advance and retreat that can be incorporated into interpretations of ice-surface elevation changes. The proposed activities will provide valuable field and research training to undergraduate/graduate students and a Louisiana high-school science teacher. The research will be interactively shared with middle- and high-school science students and with visitors to the LSU Museum of Natural Science Weekend-Science Program. | None | None | false | false | |||||
Activity, Preservation and Fossilization of Cryptoendolithic Microorganisms in Antarctica
|
1544526 |
2019-05-09 | Omelon, Christopher; Breecker, Daniel; Bennett, Philip | No dataset link provided | Cryptoendoliths are organisms that colonize microscopic cavities of rocks, which give them protection and allow them to inhabit extreme environments, such as the cold, arid desert of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. Fossilized cryptoendoliths preserve the forms and features of organisms from the past and thus provide a unique opportunity to study the organisms? life histories and environments. To study this fossil record, there needs to be a better understanding of what environmental conditions allow these fossils to form. A climate gradient currently exists in the Dry Valleys that allows us to study living, dead, and fossilized cryptoendoliths from mild to increasingly harsh environments; providing insight to the limits of life and how these fossils are formed. This project will develop instruments to detect the biological activity of the live microorganisms and conduct laboratory experiments to determine the environmental limits of their survival. The project also will characterize the chemical and structural features of the living, dead, and fossilized cryptoendoliths to understand how they become fossilized. Knowing how microorganisms are preserved as fossils in cold and dry environments like Antarctica can help to refine methods that can be used to search for and identify evidence for extraterrestrial life in similar habitats on planets such as Mars. This project includes training of graduate and undergraduate students. Little is known about cryptoendolithic microfossils and their formation processes in cold, arid terrestrial habitats of the Dry Valleys of Antarctica, where a legacy of activity is discernible in the form of biosignatures including inorganic materials and microbial fossils that preserve and indicate traces of past biological activity. The overarching goals of the proposed work are: (1) to determine how rates of microbial respiration and biodegradation of organic matter control microbial fossilization; and (2) to characterize microbial fossils and their living counterparts to elucidate mechanisms for fossilization. Using samples collected across an increasingly harsher (more cold and dry) climatic gradient that encompasses living, dead, and fossilized cryptoendolithic microorganisms, the proposed work will: (1) develop an instrument to be used in the field that can measure small concentrations of CO2 in cryptoendolithic habitats in situ; (2) conduct incubation experiments to target variations in microbial activity in samples containing living, dead, and fossilized microorganisms as well as limits to microbial activity by measuring CO2 evolution and delta13C signatures; and (3) use a suite of microscopy techniques (CLSM, cryo-SEM, FIB-SEM, µ-XFM) to correlate laboratory experimental evidence for microbial viability and activity and to identify the chemical and morphological characteristics of biosignatures and microbial fossils. A metagenomic survey of microbial communities in these samples will be used to characterize differences in diversity, identify if specific microorganisms (e.g. prokaryotes, eukaryotes) are more capable of surviving under these harsh climatic conditions, and to corroborate microscopic observations of the viability states of these microorganisms. | POLYGON((160 -76.5,160.37 -76.5,160.74 -76.5,161.11 -76.5,161.48 -76.5,161.85 -76.5,162.22 -76.5,162.59 -76.5,162.96 -76.5,163.33 -76.5,163.7 -76.5,163.7 -76.63,163.7 -76.76,163.7 -76.89,163.7 -77.02,163.7 -77.15,163.7 -77.28,163.7 -77.41,163.7 -77.54,163.7 -77.67,163.7 -77.8,163.33 -77.8,162.96 -77.8,162.59 -77.8,162.22 -77.8,161.85 -77.8,161.48 -77.8,161.11 -77.8,160.74 -77.8,160.37 -77.8,160 -77.8,160 -77.67,160 -77.54,160 -77.41,160 -77.28,160 -77.15,160 -77.02,160 -76.89,160 -76.76,160 -76.63,160 -76.5)) | POINT(161.85 -77.15) | false | false | |||||
CAREER: Deciphering Antarctic Climate Variability during the Temperate/Polar Transition and Improving Climate Change Literacy in Louisiana through a Companion Outreach Program
|
1048343 |
2011-12-10 | Warny, Sophie |
|
Intellectual Merit: The PI proposes a high-resolution paleoenvironmental study of pollen, spore, fresh-water algae, and dinoflagellate cyst assemblages to investigate the palynological record of sudden warming events in the Antarctic as recorded by the ANDRILL SMS drill core and terrestrial sections. These data will be used to derive causal mechanisms for these rapid climate events. Terrestrial samples will be obtained at various altitudes in the Dry Valleys region. The pollen and spores will provide data on atmospheric conditions, while the algae will provide data on sea-surface conditions. These data will help identify the triggers for sudden climatic shifts. If they are caused by changes in oceanic currents, a signal will be visible in the dinocyst assemblages first as currents influence their distribution. Conversely, if these shifts are triggered by atmospheric factors, then the shifts will first affect plants and be visible in the pollen record. Broader impacts: The PI proposes a suite of activities to bring field-based climate change research to a broader audience. The PI will advise a diverse group of students and educators. The palynological data collected as part of this research will be utilized, in part, to develop new lectures on Antarctic palynology and these new lectures will be made available via a collaboration with the LSU HHMI program. In addition, the PI will direct three Louisiana middle-school teachers as they pursue a Masters of Natural Science for science educators. These teachers will help the PI develop a professional development program for science teachers. Community-based activities will be organized to raise science awareness and alert students and the public of opportunities in science. | POLYGON((-180 -60,-144 -60,-108 -60,-72 -60,-36 -60,0 -60,36 -60,72 -60,108 -60,144 -60,180 -60,180 -63,180 -66,180 -69,180 -72,180 -75,180 -78,180 -81,180 -84,180 -87,180 -90,144 -90,108 -90,72 -90,36 -90,0 -90,-36 -90,-72 -90,-108 -90,-144 -90,-180 -90,-180 -87,-180 -84,-180 -81,-180 -78,-180 -75,-180 -72,-180 -69,-180 -66,-180 -63,-180 -60)) | POINT(0 -89.999) | false | false | |||||
Glacial History of the Amundsen Sea Shelf
|
9814692 |
2010-05-04 | Kellogg, Thomas; Jacobs, Stanley |
|
This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports a marine geological investigation of the Amundsen Sea region toward a better understanding of the deglaciation history of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). The WAIS may be inherently unstable because it is the last marine-based ice sheet in the world. Unlike other embayments in West Antarctica, major ice streams draining into the Amundsen Sea from the interior of the WAIS lack buttressing ice shelves. Mass balance data for the distal portions of these ice streams (Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers) appear to be in balance or may be becoming negative. Because both ice streams have beds that slope downward toward the center of the ice sheet, grounding-line recession resulting from either continued thinning or sea-level rise could trigger irreversible grounding-line retreat, leading to ice-sheet disintegration and consequent global sea-level rise. The limited marine geological and geophysical data available from the Amundsen Sea suggest that grounded ice or an ice shelf occupied the inner Amundsen Sea embayment until perhaps as recently as 1000 to 2000 years ago, and this ice may have retreated rapidly in historic time. This project, a study of the marine geology and geophysics of the Amundsen Sea continental shelf from 100 degrees W to 130 degrees W, is designed to address the Amundsen Sea part of WAIS Science Plan Priority Goal H2: "What is the deglaciation history in the eastern Ross, the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas?" This project will examine bathymetric data of the Amundsen Sea continental shelf to determine the positions of former ice-steam channels, and to aid in choosing sites for sediment coring. Single-channel seismic reflection studies will be conducted in order to determine sediment-thickness patterns, to aid in choice of coring sites, and to locate and identify morphologic features indicative of former grounded ice (e.g., moraines, scours, flutes, striations, till wedges and deltas, etc.). Coring will be concentrated along former ice flow-lines. Core samples will be analyzed in the laboratory for sedimentology, to determine whether of not basal tills are present (indicating former grounded ice and its former extent), and for calcareous and siliceous microfossils. The chronology of grounding-line and ice-shelf retreat from a presumed Last Glacial Maximum position near the shelf break will be established using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) carbon-14 dates of acid-insoluble particulate organic carbon. This project will share ship time in the Amundsen Sea with a physical oceanographic project. Marine geologic data and samples collected will be integrated with findings of other investigators toward developing a comprehensive interpretation of the history of the WAIS. | POLYGON((-179.99342 -58.74225,-143.994734 -58.74225,-107.996048 -58.74225,-71.997362 -58.74225,-35.998676 -58.74225,0.000010000000003 -58.74225,35.998696 -58.74225,71.997382 -58.74225,107.996068 -58.74225,143.994754 -58.74225,179.99344 -58.74225,179.99344 -60.716231,179.99344 -62.690212,179.99344 -64.664193,179.99344 -66.638174,179.99344 -68.612155,179.99344 -70.586136,179.99344 -72.560117,179.99344 -74.534098,179.99344 -76.508079,179.99344 -78.48206,143.994754 -78.48206,107.996068 -78.48206,71.997382 -78.48206,35.998696 -78.48206,0.000010000000003 -78.48206,-35.998676 -78.48206,-71.997362 -78.48206,-107.996048 -78.48206,-143.994734 -78.48206,-179.99342 -78.48206,-179.99342 -76.508079,-179.99342 -74.534098,-179.99342 -72.560117,-179.99342 -70.586136,-179.99342 -68.612155,-179.99342 -66.638174,-179.99342 -64.664193,-179.99342 -62.690212,-179.99342 -60.716231,-179.99342 -58.74225)) | POINT(0.000010000000003 -68.612155) | false | false | |||||
Past Environmental Conditions on the Antarctic Peninsula: a Palynological Characterization of In-situ Sediments recovered during the 2006 SHALDRIL campaign
|
0636747 |
2009-08-26 | Warny, Sophie | No dataset link provided | Abstract<br/>This project studies microfossils of plants and algae to understand climate during the earliest glaciations of Antarctica. The microfossils are from marine sediment cores collected by the 2006 SHALDRIL campaign to the Antarctic Peninsula. The work will offer constraints on sea surface temperature, ocean salinity, and terrestrial vegetation to help answer questions such as: What were conditions like on the Antarctic Peninsula during the initial formation of Antarctica's ice sheets? How rapidly did the ice sheets grow? Was their growth driven by global factors such as low atmospheric CO2 or local events like opening of the Drake Passage? <br/><br/>The broader impacts include postdoctoral fellow research and outreach via a museum exhibit and a web-based activity book for children. | POINT(-54.44917 -63.86) | POINT(-54.44917 -63.86) | false | false | |||||
DiatomWare: An Interactive Digital Image Catalog for Antarctic Cenozoic Diatoms
|
0230469 |
2007-07-31 | Wise, Sherwood | No dataset link provided | This award, provided by the Antarctic Geology and Geophysics Program of the Office of Polar Programs, supports the development of a standardized diatom image catalog or database. Diatoms are considered by many to be the most important microfossil group used today in the study of Antarctic Cenozoic marine deposits south of the Polar Front, from the near shore to deep sea. These microfossils, with walls of silica called frustules, are produced by single-celled plants (algae of the Class Bacillariophyceae) in a great variety of forms. Consequently, they have great biostratigraphic importance in the Southern Ocean and elsewhere for determining the age of marine sediments. Also, paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic studies increasingly rely on fossil diatom data. Changing biogeographic distributions of given taxa indicate shifting paleoecological conditions and provide evidence of the surface productivity and temperatures of ancient oceans. The generality of conclusions, though, is limited by variation in species concepts among workers. The broad research community relies, directly or indirectly, on the accurate identification of diatom species. Current technology can be used to greatly improve upon the standard references that have been used in making these identifications.<br/><br/>This project will develop an interactive digital-image catalog of modern and Cenozoic fossil diatoms of the Southern Ocean called "DiatomWare" for use by specialists and educators as an aid in rapid, accurate, and consistent species identification. As such, this will be a researcher's resource. It will be especially useful where it is not possible to maintain standard library resources such as onboard research vessels or at remote stations such as McMurdo Station. Major Antarctic geological drilling initiatives such as the new SHALDRIL project and the pending ANDRILL project will benefit from this product because they will rely heavily on diatom biostratigraphy to achieve their research objectives. The DiatomWare image database will be modeled on NannoWare, which was released in October 2002 on CD-ROM as a publication of the International Nannoplankton Association. BugCam will be adapted and modified as necessary to run the DiatomWare database, which can then be run from desktop or laptop computers. Images and text for the database will be scanned from the literature or captured in digital form from light or scanning electron microscopes.<br/><br/>The software interface will include a number of data fields that can be accessed by the click of a mouse button. Primary information will be the images and descriptions of the holotypes. In addition, representative images of paratypes or hypotypes will be included whenever possible in plain transmitted, differential interference contrast light and, when available, as drawings and SEM images. Also included will be a 35-word or less English diagnosis ("mini-description"), the biostratigraphic range in terms of zones and linear time, bibliographic references, lists of species considered junior synonyms, and similar species. The list of similar species will be cross-referenced with their respective image files to enable quick access for direct visual comparison on the viewing screen. Multiple images can be brought to the viewing screen simultaneously, and a zoom feature will permit image examination at a wide range of magnifications. Buttons will allow range charts, a bibliography, and key public-domain publications from the literature to be called up from within the program. The DiatomWare/BugCam package will be distributed at a nominal cost through a major nonprofit society via CD-ROM and free to Internet users on the Worldwide Web. Quality control measures will include critical review of the finalized database by a network of qualified specialists. The completed database will include descriptions and images of between 350 and 400 species, including fossil as well as modern forms that have no fossil record.<br/><br/>The development of the proposed diatom image database will be important to all research fields that depend on accurate biostratigraphic dating and paleoenvironmental interpretation of Antarctic marine sediments and plankton. The database will also serve as a valuable teaching tool for micropaleontology students and their professors, will provide a rapid means of keying down species for micropaleontologists of varying experience and background, and will promote a uniformity of taxonomic concepts since it will be developed and continuously updated with the advice of a community of nannofossil fossil experts. Broad use of the database is anticipated since it will be widely available through the Internet and on CD-ROM for use on personal computers that do not require large amounts of memory, costly specialized programs, or additional hardware. | None | None | false | false |