International Research Fellow Awards Program: The Biotic Consequences of Andean Uplift

9600394马登国际研究员奖计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行3至24个月的研究。该项目的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，并提供了使用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件的机会。该奖项将支持为期九个月的博士后访问，以支持杜克大学的罗伯特·H·马登博士与巴西拉普拉塔国立大学的Guiomar Vucetich教授合作。该项目名为《安第斯隆起的生物后果：基于现存啮齿动物和其他哺乳动物的哺乳动物化石记录的推论》。这项研究的目的是根据哺乳动物组合的组成和结构估算降雨量和海拔，探讨安第斯造山作用对中上新世动物群记录的影响。关于降雨量和古海拔的推断将基于南美洲沿海拔和降雨量梯度分布的活哺乳动物的组织模式，框架是可以在化石记录中识别的属性。在目前可用来估计降雨量和古温度的方法中，动物群方法可能是最不发达的，但可能是基于稳定同位素和化石植物群的方法的最佳补充。已经采用动物群方法来区分主要的生物群(例如，草原和森林)或记录与现代条件的不同。这些方法为重建南美洲新近纪晚期安第斯隆起的环境历史提供了可能。利用哺乳动物化石记录确定年平均降雨量和古海拔的估计值的能力取决于该记录的质量，特别是足够的采样和对物种水平的现代分类学修订。可用于研究的最好的化石记录是玻利维亚高原和阿根廷北部的记录。***

9600394 Madden The International Research Fellow Awards Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twenty- four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a nine-month postdoctoral research visit which will support Dr. Robert H. Madden of Duke University to work with Professor Guiomar Vucetich at the Universidad Nacional de La Plata in Brazil. There project is entitled, "The Biotic Consequences of Andean Uplift: Inferences About the Mammalian Fossil Record Based on Living Rodents and Other Mammals." The purpose of this research is to explore the influence of Andean orogeny on the Mio-Pliocene faunal record based on estimates of rainfall and elevation from the composition and structure of mammalian assemblages. Inferences about rainfall and paleoelevation will be based on patterns in the organization of living mammals distributed along elevation and rainfall gradients in South America framed in terms of attributes that can be recognized in the fossil record. Of the methods currently available for estimating rainfall and paleotemperature, faunal methods are probably the least well-developed, and yet may provide the best complement to methods based on stable isotopes and fossil flora. Faunal methods have been undertaken to distinguish between major biomes (e.g., grassland vs forest) or to document departures from modern conditions. These methods open the possibility of reconstructing the environmental history of Andean uplift in South America through the late Neogene. The ability to determine estimates of mean annual rainfall and paleoelevation using the mammalian fossil record depends on the quality of that record, especially adequate sampling and modern taxonomic revision to the species level. The best available fossil records for the studies are those o f altiplano Bolivia and northern Argentina. ***