CAREER: Plants, insects, and the Early Paleogene hothouse: Using the past to assess the future, while challenging the face of science

GSTDTAP

项目编号	1454031
	CAREER: Plants, insects, and the Early Paleogene hothouse: Using the past to assess the future, while challenging the face of science
	Ellen Currano
主持机构	University of Wyoming
项目开始年	2015
	2015-03-01
项目结束日期	2020-02-29
资助机构	US-NSF
项目类别	Continuing grant
项目经费	134995(USD)
国家	美国
语种	英语
英文摘要	Non-Technical Abstract: If we continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate, by 2100 we may reach a climate state not seen since the early Eocene Epoch, ~50 million years ago, when the poles were ice-free. Because fundamental holes remain in our understanding of how such hothouse worlds work, it is essential to collect new paleontological data from globally warm time intervals. The PI will assemble teams of students, postdocs, and collaborating geoscientists to excavate leaf fossils from early Eocene sites across Wyoming and northern Colorado. Leaf fossils tell us what plants were alive in a particular time and location, and they can also be used to estimate past temperature and precipitation levels. Well-preserved leaf fossils even show traces of ancient insect feeding damage, allowing us to reconstruct plant-insect food webs, which today account for up to 75% of terrestrial biodiversity. Comparing fossils from different sites allows the group to test hypotheses about biodiversity, migrations, and biotic resilience during hothouse conditions. Understanding past greenhouse worlds and applying this knowledge to today's warming world is a significant challenge that will require a diverse workforce, but, at present, the paleontological and geological communities are lacking in diversity. The research activities that the PI outlines here aim to increase training opportunities for aspiring female scientists, and the outreach objectives complement this by showcasing, as role models, inspirational female field scientists, drawing attention to their trials and triumphs and making them more accessible to the general public. The cornerstone of these efforts, The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science, is an innovative collaboration with professional artists to produce a live-action documentary and develop and display a touring portrait series that identifies women working in the geosciences and brings to light the obstacles that they face. Through this project, the investigator will aim to combat implicit and unintentional gender biases while inspiring new generations of women to enter the field. Technical Abstract: Analysis of the fossil record permits us to investigate how ecosystems function during very different climate regimes and to evaluate the effects of climate on ecosystems and evolution. The warm, equable, and ice-free Early Paleogene (66-50 Ma) is ideal for study because it simultaneously provides a marked contrast to the present, as well as insight into what the future may entail. The PI will assemble teams of students, postdocs, and collaborating geoscientists to collect new paleobotanical, paleoecological, and paleoclimatic data from understudied Early Paleogene sedimentary basins of Wyoming and northern Colorado. The group will synthesize the data they collect with the high-resolution record from the Bighorn Basin of northwestern Wyoming in order to: (i) assess the diversity, structure, and ecology of forest ecosystems during the Early Paleogene hothouse; (ii) test hypotheses about endemism, latitudinal gradients, migrations, and biotic resilience during hothouse conditions, and (iii) construct regional to continental-scale biogeographic and paleoclimatic maps. In order to calibrate the fossil data and to determine which modern macro-ecological patterns are also characteristic of greenhouse worlds, the group will collect ecological data from four extant forests, using the same methodologies as for fossil assemblages. The educational objectives of this proposal complement the strongly field-based research agenda by showcasing, as role models, some inspirational female field scientists and providing opportunities for aspiring scientists, particularly women, to conduct field-based research. The outreach efforts attempt to bring female geoscientists into the public eye through an innovative project entitled The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science. In it, the investigator will collaborate with a professional photographer and film director to produce both a live-action documentary and a touring portrait series focused on the challenges and obstacles faced by inspirational women in the geosciences.
来源学科分类	Geosciences - Earth Sciences
文献类型	项目
条目标识符	http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/67662
专题	环境与发展全球科技态势
推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714	Ellen Currano.CAREER: Plants, insects, and the Early Paleogene hothouse: Using the past to assess the future, while challenging the face of science.2015.