Higher-Taxon Fidelity: Comparative Taphonomy of Marine Benthic Associations in Holocene Depositional Systems of Coastal North Carolina

更高的分类单元保真度：北卡罗来纳州沿海全新世沉积系统中海洋底栖群落的比较埋藏学

• 批准号: 1243484
• 负责人: Michal Kowalewski
• 金额: $ 16.13万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-01 至 2015-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1243484&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Higher; Taxon; Fidelity; Comparative; Taphonomy

Higher-Taxon Fidelity: Comparative Taphonomy of Marine Benthic Associations in Holocene Depositional Systems of Coastal North Carolina This project will compare present-day marine communities with past communities that existed in the same areas prior to the industrial revolution. The past communities will be reconstructed using shellfish remains found abundantly at or around the surface in coastal habitats. Also, the project will assess fossilization potential (probability of preservation) of major types of marine animals, with primary focus on shellfish. Using coastal habitats of the Outer Banks (North Carolina, USA), marine communities will be assessed quantitatively in terms of several major groups of animals important both in commercial and scientific terms. The targeted field area has been selected because of the presence of abundant and diverse marine animals (both live and dead), including benthic mollusks, echinoids, arthropods, annelids, and brachiopods. We will sample multiple sites to carry out quantitative comparisons of living organisms and dead shellfish remains. The project should generate a dataset of ~20,000 specimens representing ~200 samples of living and/or dead organisms.Two primary goals motivate this study. First goal is to quantify differences between live communities and dead shellfish accumulations in order to provide data that will allow us to interpret more reliably ecological information preserved in the fossil record (shellfish is a dominant type of organisms preserved as fossils). Namely, to develop more rigorous understanding of environmental and ecological changes recorded in the fossil record, it is necessary to determine whether death assemblages can provide meaningful estimates of biodiversity, faunal composition, and other aspects of living communities. Second, a rigorous understanding of long-term ecosystem changes in areas inhabited by present-day shellfish communities is critical for assessing human impacts on marine life. Namely, systematic sampling of extant, ecologically understood, and often economically important shellfish should contribute direct data for assessing human impacts on coastal ecosystems. This, in turn, should result in a more informed evaluation of environmental -- and, ultimately, societal -- consequences of our diverse activities in coastal areas (from industry to tourism) and improved guidelines for developing sustainable approaches to human uses of coastal areas.This project will offer a venue for training a post-doctoral researcher in integrating disparate data and developing transferable skills in paleontology, marine sciences, and statistical methods. In addition funding has been allocated for undergraduate student internships to be recruited from underrepresented minority groups (with assistance from the on-campus Department of Multicultural Programs and Services). These undergraduates will receive hands-on field experience and will be involved in science educational/outreach activities, which will also allow them to develop competitive portfolios for pursuing graduate education. Numerous undergraduate educational and research opportunities will also be provided by this project, including datasets suitable for developing laboratory exercise in introductory and advanced courses in natural sciences. This proposal will support one female post-doctoral researcher and initiate collaboration between Virginia Tech and Duke University Marine Laboratory. Popular online venues will be used to involve the public in an interactive manner.

高税收的保真度：北卡罗来纳州沿海全新世沉积系统中海洋底栖协会的比较taphonomy这个项目将将当今的海洋社区与工业革命之前同一地区存在的过去社区进行比较。过去的社区将使用贝类在沿海栖息地的表面或周围大量发现。此外，该项目将评估主要类型的海洋动物的化石潜力（保存概率），主要关注贝类。使用外岸银行（美国北卡罗来纳州）的沿海栖息地，将根据商业和科学术语重要的几个主要动物来定量评估海洋社区。由于存在丰富和多样化的海洋动物（均活着和死亡），因此选择了靶向田间区域，包括底栖软体动物，类棘突，节肢动物，Annelids和Brachiopods。我们将采样多个地点，以进行生物和死贝鱼的定量比较。该项目应生成一个约20,000个标本的数据集，代表约200个生物和/或死亡生物的样本。两个主要目标激发了这项研究。第一个目标是量化现场群落和死贝类积累之间的差异，以提供可以使我们能够解释化石记录中保存更可靠的生态信息的数据（贝类是保存为化石的主要生物类型）。也就是说，要对化石记录中记录的环境和生态变化有更严格的了解，有必要确定死亡组合是否可以提供有意义的生物多样性，动物组成和生活社区其他方面的有意义的估计。其次，对当今贝类社区居住的地区长期生态系统变化的严格了解对于评估人类对海洋生物的影响至关重要。也就是说，对现有，生态理解和经济上重要的贝类的系统采样应为评估人类对沿海生态系统的影响的直接数据提供直接数据。 This, in turn, should result in a more informed evaluation of environmental -- and, ultimately, societal -- consequences of our diverse activities in coastal areas (from industry to tourism) and improved guidelines for developing sustainable approaches to human uses of coastal areas.This project will offer a venue for training a post-doctoral researcher in integrating disparate data and developing transferable skills in paleontology, marine sciences, and statistical methods.此外，资金已被分配给本科生实习，将从代表性不足的少数群体（在校园内多元文化计划和服务部的协助下）招募。这些本科生将获得动手实地经验，并将参与科学教育/外展活动，这也将使他们能够开发有竞争力的投资组合来追求研究生教育。该项目还将提供许多本科教育和研究机会，包括适合在自然科学的入门和高级课程中开发实验室练习的数据集。该建议将支持一位女性博士后研究人员，并启动弗吉尼亚理工大学与杜克大学海洋实验室之间的合作。流行的在线场地将用于以互动方式参与公众。