POWRE: High-Resolution Chronology of Millennial-Scale Lake-Level Fluctuations in the Dry Valleys (Antarctica) From Uranium-Thorium and Radiocarbon Dating

The Professional Opportunities for Women in Research and Engineering (POWRE) program affords new research and educational enhancement opportunities for women scientists. This project, which addresses the fundamental problem of the cause of millennial-scale climate change, contains components specifically designed to increase the educational and research skills of the principal investigator. She will learn the following new information/skills: 1) thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) uranium/thorium (U/TH) dating with Dr. G. Henderson at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and Oxford University, 2) millennial-scale climate change with Drs. W. Broecker and G. Bond, LDEO, and with Drs. D. Oppo and L. Keigwin, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 3) Antarctic limnology with Dr. C. Hendy, University of Waikato, and 4) regional climate modeling with Dr. K. Maasch, University of Maine. She will then apply her new knowledge and skills to a study of millennial-scale fluctuations of lake levels in the Dry Valleys of Antarctica. The investigator will use TIMS, U/TH and accelerator mass spectrometric (AMS) radiocarbon dating of lacustrine carbonates to test the reservoir effect in order to ensure that the chronology of lake-level fluctuations in accurate. She will then use her knowledge of millennial-scale fluctuations to determine if the lake variations are similar to those seen elsewhere in the world. Knowledge of limnology will help not only to assess the lake reservoir effect, but also to begin to determine the cause of large-scale changes in lake level. Likewise, regional climate modeling will allow her to gain insight into the energy balance and wind patterns of the Dry Valleys region during the last glacial maximum. These new skills will benefit the P.I., not only in this particular project relating to Antarctic lakes, but also in her future Antarctic and Southern Hemisphere research in New Zealand and Patagonia