Collaborative Research: Life in a Volcanic Landscape: Early Jurassic Paleoenvironments and Paleobotany

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Intellectual Merit: Although fossil floras are known from the Antarctic Peninsula region, the record of Jurassic plant life in continental Antarctica is sparse, possibly due to tectonic and magmatic activity associated with the breakup of Gondwana and the emplacement of the Ferrar Large Igneous Province. The PIs propose to examine Early Jurassic floras and paleoenvironments in southern Victoria Land, where pyroclastic rocks of the Mawson Formation contain sedimentary interbeds of fossiliferous mudstones and cherts deposited in a freshwater lake environment. They will collect plant megafossils, palynomorphs, charcoalified and petrified wood, and geochemical data constrained by detailed stratigraphy and sedimentology to provide baseline data on the composition of the floras at this time, their depositional environments, and the environment of growth. These data will contribute to understanding plant life and paleoenvironments in Antarctica during a time of increasing volcanism and will provide floral information that can be compared to other, better-known floras elsewhere in Gondwana. The presence of this high-latitude terrestrial vegetation in the Ferrar Group will allow the PIs to test the theory of rapid greenhouse warming in the Jurassic, a situation similar to that predicted for the next century in the modern world. Broader impacts: This proposal will expand on successful education and human development activities including: outreach, teaching, and mentoring of women and under-represented students in paleobiology; mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral scholars; continuing support for workshops for middle school girls in science via the Expanding Your Horizons Program and Si! Se Puede Hacer Ciencias y Matematicas at Emporia State University, the KU Discover Technology TRIO Program, and the KU Natural History Museum. Communication to the public will be enhanced through widely disseminated publications and presentations in multiple media venues, as well as through the availability of archived digital and specimen data.