Acquisition of Equipment for a Paleobotany Laboratory at Penn State

0236489 Wilf PI开始在宾夕法尼亚州立大学地球科学系担任终身教职，并正在建立一个古植物学实验室进行研究和教学。该奖项支持购买基本的实验室设备，如标本盒，显微镜，计算机，摄影用品和化石制备设备。PI的研究计划是定量的，依赖于大样本量，该奖项将有助于支持在现代设施中一次收集和积极管理数千种化石植物标本。 在宾夕法尼亚州立大学的标本住房允许他们每天使用的PI和学生。该奖项为几项研究计划提供了物质基础设施，这些计划涉及对过去陆地生态系统和气候变化的更好理解，例如（1）使用化石植物量化古气候的方法;（2）跨越古生界-古近纪边界的陆地气候和植被，这是一个大规模灭绝的时期;（3）古新世晚期-始新世早期全球变暖时期的陆地气候与植被;（4）从白垩纪到始新世，在化石树叶上看到的昆虫食草性对气候变化和其他扰动的反应。该奖项加快的实验室基础设施将支持本科生，研究生和博士后的培训，支持他们的研究项目，并使宾夕法尼亚州立大学的古植物学教学收藏的住房和维护成为可能。

0236489WilfThe PI is beginning a tenure-track appointment in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University and is setting up a paleobotany lab for research and teaching. This award supports the acquisition of fundamental laboratory equipment such as specimen cases, microscopes, computers, photographic supplies, and fossil preparation equipment. The PI's research program is quantitative in nature and relies on large sample sizes, and the award will help to support the collection and active curation of several thousand specimens of fossil plants at a time in a modern facility. Housing of specimens at Penn State allows them to be used on a daily basis by the PI and students. The award provides the material infrastructure for several research initiatives involving the improved understanding of changes in past terrestrial ecosystems and climates, such as (1) methods for using fossil plants to quantify paleoclimates; (2) terrestrial climates and vegetation across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, a time of mass extinctions; (3) terrestrial climates and vegetation during the late Paleocene-early Eocene interval of global warming; and (4) the response of insect herbivory, seen on fossil leaves, to climate changes and other perturbations from the Cretaceous to the Eocene. The laboratory infrastructure expedited by the award will support the training of undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs, support their research projects, and make possible the housing and maintenance of paleobotanical teaching collections at Penn State.***