This award supports two visits over a two-year period by Dr. Paul I. Abell of the University of Rhode Island to the University of Western Australia, to work with Drs. Karl-Heinz Wyrwoll, Jane C. Newsome, and George Kendrick. Mindful of the current debate on whether global warming and the greenhouse effect, brought on by various forms of atmospheric pollution, pose a threat to our global environment, the investigators propose examining past climatic changes in paleoclimates to map their temporal and geographic extent to give some warming of the magnitude of climatically-induced catastrophes. Specifically, they will investigate the extent of the Younger Davis reglaciation event of 10,000 years ago, in western Australia, a region remote from its putative source (meltwater diversion from glaciers in central Canada). The investigators will use techniques of stable isotope ratios of oxygen in the aragonitic shells of land gastropod shells (techniques pioneered by Dr. Abell in studies of climatic change in central and southern Africa) to provide a proxy for climate change. The isotopic studies at the University of Rhode Island will be paralleled by pollen and sediment geomorphology studies by collaborators at the University of Western Australia. Knowledge of what produced that event, how quickly it achieved its maximum, and how long it lasted, are crucial in understanding what to expect in future climatic changes.
