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

二叠纪末期大灭绝(EPME)是地球过去5.4亿年历史上最严重的生物危机。该项目旨在确定在EPME之前和之后的古环境压力的时间、性质和原因，重点是暴露在澳大利亚东部的暴露良好的沉积序列，并得到气候模拟研究的支持。该项目将整合来自几个学科的数据，以探索以下假设：a)EPME是在中晚二叠世早些时候发生的较长期危机的一部分，b)危机不是同时在古纬度地区表现出来的，以及c)大陆生态系统以不同于海洋生态系统的方式对危机做出反应。内布拉斯加州州立大学博物馆将对学生进行培训，并开发公共展示。EPME已成为终端成员生态灾难的典范，未来可能会重演。沿海环境是当今人口最稠密的地区之一，但之前对EPME的研究主要集中在海洋和大陆内陆记录上。在调查横跨温带到极地纬度的约2000公里海岸线上积累的沉积物时，拟议的项目将增进对大陆边缘对快速环境变化的反应的了解。这项工作可能会改变对显生界最严重的全球生态危机的时间框架、驱动机制、全球变异性和最终原因的理解。

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.