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

高分类群保真度：北卡罗来纳海岸全新世沉积系统中海洋底栖生物群落的比较地学这个项目将比较当今的海洋群落与工业革命之前存在于同一地区的过去群落。过去的群落将利用在沿海栖息地表面或周围大量发现的贝类遗骸进行重建。此外，该项目将评估主要海洋动物类型的石化潜力（保存的可能性），主要关注贝类。利用外滩（美国北卡罗莱纳州）的沿海栖息地，海洋群落将根据在商业和科学方面都很重要的几个主要动物群体进行定量评估。选择目标区域是因为存在丰富多样的海洋动物（包括活的和死的），包括底栖软体动物、棘皮动物、节肢动物、环节动物和腕足动物。我们将在多个地点取样，对活生物体和死贝类遗骸进行定量比较。该项目应生成约20,000个标本的数据集，代表约200个活的和/或死的生物样本。这项研究有两个主要目标。第一个目标是量化活的群落和死的贝类积累之间的差异，以便提供数据，使我们能够更可靠地解释保存在化石记录中的生态信息（贝类是作为化石保存的主要生物类型）。也就是说，为了对化石记录中记录的环境和生态变化有更严格的理解，有必要确定死亡组合是否能提供对生物多样性、动物组成和生活群落其他方面的有意义的估计。其次，严格了解当今贝类群落居住地区的长期生态系统变化对于评估人类对海洋生物的影响至关重要。也就是说，对现存的、生态学上已知的、通常具有重要经济意义的贝类进行系统取样，应该为评估人类对沿海生态系统的影响提供直接数据。反过来，这应该导致对我们在沿海地区的各种活动（从工业到旅游业）的环境后果以及最终的社会后果进行更明智的评估，并改进指导方针，制定人类利用沿海地区的可持续方法。该项目将提供一个场所，培训博士后研究人员整合不同的数据，并发展古生物学、海洋科学和统计方法方面的可转移技能。此外，还为从代表性不足的少数群体中招募的本科生实习提供了资金（在校园多元文化项目和服务部门的帮助下）。这些本科生将获得实地实践经验，并将参与科学教育/推广活动，这也将使他们能够为追求研究生教育而开发有竞争力的投资组合。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入门和高级课程中开发实验室练习的数据集。该提案将支持一名女性博士后研究员，并启动弗吉尼亚理工大学和杜克大学海洋实验室之间的合作。利用热门的网络场所，让公众以互动的方式参与进来。

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.