Support for PAGES Varves Working Group 2nd Workshop

Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi TX

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal requests funds from the NSF to support at least 15 U.S.-based early career scientists (graduate students, postdocs, and new faculty/researchers) to participate in a workshop in Corpus Christi, TX. This workshop is titled "Learning from Other Communities," and will be focused on the development of robust chronologies based on what can learned about the tools and methodologies used by scientists who work with other annually resolved climate archives (but not varved sediments). The workshop will feature keynote addresses by a dendroclimatologist, an ice core scientist, and coral- and speleothem-based paleoscience experts who work at annual resolution. The group will then discuss how the presented 'best-practice' techniques in these fields can be applied or adapted to varved sediments, and what quality criteria should be taken into account with this different medium. The focus of this workshop on producing robust chronologies will be of great benefit to a broad cross-section of varve workers and projects. By removing as much time uncertainty as possible from varved records, this will eventually translate into the greater usage and recognition of varved sediment records as annual archives of past global change. The workshop will provide an excellent opportunity for training and knowledge transfer from experienced varve scientists to a large group of early career researcher working in the same field. This will be facilitated by the workshop format, which explicitly promotes discussion and idea exchange. A significant effort will be made to involve members of underrepresented groups such as minorities, women, and persons with disabilities. This workshop will also serve as a stepping stone toward the VWG?s ultimate goal of moving varve records one step closer to gold-standard paleoclimate records like tree rings. This will eventually improve paleoclimate reconstructions by offering up another series of robust, well-controlled paleoclimate records that may be considered. This workshop will provide a tremendous amount of material that will eventually be incorporated into the varves "Handbook" produced by the VWG. This "Handbook" of best practices for researchers will be a significant effort that disseminates scientific knowledge to the larger community for the benefit of all. Finally, this workshop will provide an important opportunity for the local organizer/chair, an early career researcher at Texas A&M University?Corpus Christi. Specifically, it will establish and/or strengthen educational alliances and opportunities by putting the university "on the map" as a possible destination for graduate degrees in paleoscience, especially high resolution studies. Currently, the university is not known for this, but one of the primary goals of the local organizer/chair is to start up a paleoscience program there.