ELT Collaborative Research: Causes and effects of the Permian-Triassic biotic crisis inferred from continental margin sections and modeling

二叠纪末大规模灭绝（EPME）是过去5.4亿年地球历史上最严重的生物危机。该项目的目的是确定时间，性质和原因的古环境压力导致和之后的EPME，重点是暴露在澳大利亚东部的沉积序列暴露，并支持气候模拟研究。该项目将整合来自多个学科的数据，以探讨以下假设：a）EPME是中晚二叠世早期事件之后的长期危机的一部分，B）危机并没有在整个古纬度地区同时表现出来，c）大陆生态系统以不同于海洋生态系统的方式应对危机。学生将接受培训，并将在内布拉斯加州立大学博物馆进行公开展示。EPME已经成为未来可能复制的最终成员生态灾难的一个例子。沿海地区是当今人口最稠密的地区之一，但以前对EPME的研究主要集中在海洋和大陆内部记录上。在调查沿温带至极地纬度约2 000公里海岸线积累的沉积物时，拟议项目将增进对大陆边对环境迅速变化的反应的了解。这项工作将潜在地改变对时间框架、驱动机制、全球变化和最严重的全球生态危机的最终原因的理解。

The end-Permian mass extinction (EPME) was the most severe biotic crisis in the past 540 million years of Earth history. This project aims to identify the timing, nature, and causes of paleoenvironmental stresses leading up to and following the EPME, focusing on well-exposed sedimentary successions exposed in eastern Australia, and supported by climate modelling studies. The project will integrate data from several disciplines to explore the hypotheses that a) the EPME was part of a longer-term crisis that followed earlier events in the Middle-Late Permian, b) the crisis was not manifested simultaneously across the paleolatitudes, and c) continental ecosystems responded to the crisis in different ways than marine ecosystems. Students will be trained and public displays will be developed at the University of Nebraska State Museum.The EPME has gained relevance as an example of an end-member ecological catastrophe that could potentially be replicated in the future. Coastal settings are among the most densely populated today, yet previous studies of the EPME have focused largely on oceanic and continental interior records. In investigating deposits that accumulated along ~2000 km of coastline spanning temperate to polar latitudes, the proposed project will improve understanding of the response of continental margins to rapid environmental change. This work will potentially transform understanding of the timeframes, driving mechanisms, global variability, and ultimate causes of the most severe global ecologic crisis of the Phanerozoic.