Duration: January 15, 2007 - December 31, 2011
Principal Investigator: Mark S. Twickler
This proposal is for the continued operation of the National Ice Core Laboratory-Science Management Office (NICL-SMO) at the Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans and Space, University of New Hampshire. NICL-SMO serves as the primary point of contact for scientists interested in access to ice cores and is responsible for the coordination and facilitation of the Ice Core Working Group (ICWG), a group of scientists who represent ice core researchers and those in related disciplines whose research utilizes or applies to ice core research. The ICWG investigates a wide range of topics related to ice core research including scientific oversight of the National Ice Core Laboratory (NICL), sample access and distribution, inventory, policy issues and the development of plans for future ice core activities. NICL-SMO proposes to continue assisting the ICWG in polling the scientific community, developing reports, planning workshops, providing oversight of NICL operations, and coordinating educational outreach activities.
Intellectual Merit: Ice cores play a critical role in understanding regional and global climate change. NICL-SMO fills a unique role in providing investigators a central point of contact to find information on current research being done and how to access ice core samples. Ice cores have proven to hold a wide range of scientific promise but many scientists with new hypotheses are not experienced with the medium of ice cores. NICL-SMO assists these new investigators with techniques for extracting samples, suggesting the use of de-accessed ice for method development, and is readily available for consulting. By providing this service to the scientific community NICL-SMO helps increase the dissemination of scientific information preserved in ice cores.
Broader Impacts: NICL-SMO, through established procedures, assists U.S. ice core scientists address questions of human interest related to the Earth's climate system including global warming, abrupt climate change, changes in sea level, biogeochemical cycling, and multiple other aspects of climate. This proposal will allow for the facilitation of additional ice cores to be analyzed and the dissemination of information will increase our understanding of the Earth's climate. The data and interpretations derived from NICL's archive will give policymakers the information necessary to make better decisions on the future of the Earth. Thus, by continuing to help facilitate ice core sciences this proposal will benefit society.
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