Paleopalynology of the Silurian Section at Arisaig, Nova Scotia

新斯科舍省阿里赛格志留纪剖面的古孢粉学

• 批准号: 9219965
• 负责人: Paul Strother
• 金额: $ 7.5万
• 依托单位: Boston College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1993
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1993-02-15 至 1996-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9219965&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Paleopalynology; Silurian; Section; Arisaig; Nova

The proposed project concerns the collection, description and study of microscopic plant remains and acritarchs from Silurian age rocks in northeastern North America. The principal section to be sampled will be the Arisaig Group in Nova Scotia, an extremely well-studied shallow marine deposit which spans the entire Silurian Period. Spores and other plant fragments occur as organic components of these near-shore marine deposits, and, because organic-walled phytoplankton (acritarchs) are mixed in with land plant remains, it will be possible to compare the North American assemblages directly with their counterparts from the type sections in the Welsh Borderlands and the Prague Basin. Since palynomorphs represent the remains of primary producers in both the terrestrial and marine realm, the reconstruction of palynomorph assemblages should serve as an index of the basal trophic resource for benthic marine communities. PI will compare palynomorph diversity and assemblage dynamics at both micro-and macro-scales with previously documented paleoecological and benthic community reconstructions for the Arisaig section. PI will also test for correlations between benthic invertebrate community assemblages and syndepositional phytoplankton assemblages. The documentation of the non-marine component of the Arisaig Group will represent the first attempt to study the primordial adaptive radiation of the land plants from a single continuous Silurian section. By establishing a stratigraphic record of fossil plant remains, the information generated from this project will be critical to the serious study of the origin and early evolution of the terrestrial plant kingdom.

该项目旨在收集、描述和研究北美东北部志留纪时期岩石中的微观植物遗骸和生物。取样的主要部分将是新斯科舍省的阿里塞格组，这是一个研究得非常充分的浅海矿床，跨越了整个志留纪。孢子和其他植物碎片作为这些近岸海洋沉积物的有机组成部分出现，而且，由于有机壁浮游植物（栖生物）与陆地植物残骸混合在一起，将有可能直接将北美的组合与威尔士边境地区和布拉格盆地的类型剖面中的对应组合进行比较。由于珊瑚虫代表了陆地和海洋领域初级生产者的遗骸，因此珊瑚虫组合的重建应作为底栖海洋群落基础营养资源的指标。PI将在微观和宏观尺度上与先前记录的阿里塞格剖面的古生态和底栖生物群落重建进行比较。PI还将测试底栖无脊椎动物群落组合与同沉积浮游植物组合之间的相关性。对阿萨格群非海洋部分的记录将是第一次尝试从一个连续的志留纪剖面研究陆地植物的原始适应性辐射。通过建立植物化石的地层记录，该项目所产生的信息将对认真研究陆生植物王国的起源和早期进化至关重要。