CAREER: How will marine ecosystems respond to climate change? Integrating K-12 teaching and paleoceanographic research

由于人为过程，地球海洋生态系统和碳循环目前正在发生根本性变化，人们对这些变化的影响仍知之甚少。古海洋学记录为了解生态系统过去如何应对快速气候变化提供了一个独特的机会。这项工作由加州大学戴维斯分校的一名教员领导，将利用来自圣巴巴拉盆地(SBB)的精美沉积物记录来重建海底生物多样性如何对过去快速变暖时期的温度和氧气变化做出反应。该项目基于最近的发现，包括节肢动物、软体动物和棘皮动物在内的各种无脊椎动物分类群在SBB沉积物中得到了丰富的保存，因此可以直接与更成熟的气候变化记录进行比较。沉积群落的研究将集中在三个领域：1)现代动物群，使用最近在加州边缘收集的跨度300-1200米的盒状岩芯，2)横跨最近地质史上最突然的气候变化的SBB岩心的深度断面，以及3)中更新世沉积记录，提供了过去1 Ma普遍存在的千年尺度气候变化的证据。了解气候变化对海洋环境影响的复杂性的关键是综合生物、地质、化学和物理信息。这项研究将直接解决这一整合问题，并通过与加州大学戴维斯分校成功的数学与科学教学(MAST)计划合作，努力教育未来的数学和科学教师以及K-12学生。每年秋季，硕士学生将开发、测试和修改气候科学课程，然后在第二年春天用于访问教室。暑期奖学金将为硕士学生(2/年)在博德加海洋实验室(BML)参加暑期强化实地课程和完成独立研究项目提供全额资金支持。在完成硕士研究生奖学金后，学生将利用他们的独立研究项目和数据作为下一轮硕士学生主导的课程开发的灵感。

Fundamental shifts in the Earth's ocean ecosystems and carbon cycle are currently underway due to anthropogenic processes, and the implications of these shifts are still poorly understood. Paleoceanographic records provide a unique opportunity to understand how ecosystems have responded to rapid climate change in the past. This work, led by a faculty member at the University of California at Davis, will utilize exquisite sediment records from Santa Barbara Basin (SBB) to reconstruct how seafloor biodiversity responded to changes in temperature and oxygenation during past time periods of rapid warming. This project builds upon the recent discovery that a wide variety of invertebrate taxonomic groups, including arthropods, molluscs, and echinoderms, are abundantly preserved in SBB sediments, and thus can be directly compared to more established records of climate change. The investigations of sedimentary communities will focus on three areas: 1) modern fauna, using recently collected box cores that span 300-1200m on the California margin, 2) a depth transect of cores from SBB spanning the deglaciation, the most abrupt climate change in recent geologic history, and 3) Mid-Pleistocene sediment records that have provided evidence of pervasive millennial-scale climate change throughout the past 1 Ma. A key to understanding the complexities of climate change impacts on ocean environments is the synthesis of biological, geological, chemical and physical information. This research will directly tackle that integration, and be combined with an effort to educate future math and science teachers and K-12 students by collaborating with the successful UC Davis Math and Science Teaching (MAST) program. Each year, MAST students will develop, test, and modify climate science curriculum during the fall, which will then be utilized for visiting classrooms the following spring. Summer Fellowships will provide full financial support for MAST students (2/year) to take summer intensive field courses at Bodega Marine Laboratory (BML) and complete independent research projects. At the completion of their MAST Fellowship, students will utilize their independent research projects and data as inspiration for the next round of MAST-student led curriculum development.