This project aims to conduct a major new proxy synthesis, reconstruction, and data-model comparison for global monsoon systems from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to the present. Specifically, this project will synthesize hydroclimate records from global monsoon regions, reconstruct monsoon variability over the past 21,000 years, and form the basis of a data-model comparison. This effort will help characterize monsoon responses to changing global energy balance, develop a community database resource, and build a testbed for model improvement. This database of monsoon records (from regional to global scales) will enable the researchers to reconstruct the monsoon strength and extent, to test hypotheses linking hemispheric temperature and circulation with tropical hydroclimate, and to test how well past monsoon variability is simulated in models. These reconstructions will be used to then investigate how monsoon systems responded to the collapse of Northern Hemisphere ice-sheets, and changes in latitudinal temperature gradients.
The potential Broader Impacts include developing and curating a global monsoon database for the past 21 thousand years and advancing the understanding of past and future monsoon dynamics. The database will be made publicly available to the wider paleoclimate community. Other potential Broader include developing a teaching-kit and holding a teacher-training workshop to engage k-12 classrooms and teachers on local tribal nations (in Northern Arizona). The project would support two early career scientists and one PhD student that the PIs will recruit from underrepresented minorities.
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.
