DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Biological Responses to Climate Change: Physiological and Community-level Responses to the Miocene Climate Optimum (Early Miocene Astoria Formation, Oregon)

生物对气候变化的反应过程和驱动因素知之甚少，特别是在沿海海洋，尽管生物体对环境变化的反应有充分的记录。确定生物体如何响应，为什么响应，以及它们响应的环境压力是理解未来全球变暖对现代生物群的影响，为保护工作提供信息，并维持经济上重要的渔业不可或缺的。本研究探讨了温度、生产力和其他环境因素在海洋底栖生物的分布、丰度和生理健康方面的作用，并将直接测试生理极限在确定群落组成方面的作用。 这项研究将使用早中新世（约2000 - 1800万年前）的化石记录来评估生物对有据可查的全球变暖约4摄氏度的反应。将通过跟踪物种的相对丰度来评估底栖生物群落的变化，并将通过贝壳生长率的变化来跟踪双壳类健康的变化。从软体动物和有孔虫外壳中提取的地球化学代用指标将用于重建区域环境变化，并将有助于确定气候的哪些组成部分对生物变化的影响最大。由于这项研究利用了化石记录，因此可以在比现代生态学更长的时间尺度上评估气候变化的影响，而不会混淆污染，富营养化或捕鱼等人为因素。 本科生将参加现场和实验室的组成部分，与独立研究的选择。 将编制一份具有“虚拟”成分的实地考察指南，使中学生到大学生接触气候科学的古生物学方法。芝加哥大学的生物科学推广计划提供了一个进一步的途径，传播科学研究，以低收入，少数民族为主的学校。

The processes and drivers of biotic responses to climate changes are poorly understood, especially in coastal oceans, even though it is well documented that organisms respond to environmental change. Identifying how organisms respond, why they respond, and to which environmental stressor(s) they are responding is integral to understanding the effects of future global warming on the modern biota, informing conservation efforts, and sustaining economically important fisheries. This study examines the role of temperature, productivity, and other environmental factors in the distribution, abundance, and physiological health of marine benthic organisms, and will directly test the role of physiological limits in determining community composition. This study will use a fossil record from the Early Miocene (~20-18 million-years-ago) to evaluate biotic responses to a well-documented global warming of ~4 degrees C. Benthic community change will be evaluated by tracking the relative abundance of species and changes in bivalve health will be tracked via changes in shell growth rates. Geochemical proxies, derived from molluscan and foraminiferal shells, will be used to reconstruct regional environmental changes and will allow determination of which components of climate are most responsible for the biological changes. Because this study utilizes a fossil record, the effects of climate change can be assessed over longer time scales than within modern ecology and without confounding anthropogenic factors such as pollution, eutrophication, or fishing. Undergraduate students will participate in field and laboratory components, with the option of independent research. A field trip guide with a "virtual" component will be generated to expose middle school through college students to paleobiological approaches to climate sciences. The University of Chicago biosciences outreach program provides a further avenue to disseminate scientific research to low-income, minority-dominated schools.