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

二叠纪末大灭绝（EPME）是过去5.4亿年地球历史上最严重的生物危机。该项目旨在确定导致EPME之前和之后的古环境压力的时间、性质和原因，重点关注澳大利亚东部暴露良好的沉积序列，并以气候模拟研究为支持。该项目将整合来自多个学科的数据，以探索以下假设：a) EPME是二叠纪中晚期早期事件之后的长期危机的一部分；b)危机并未在古纬度同时显现；c)大陆生态系统对危机的反应方式与海洋生态系统不同。学生们将接受培训，内布拉斯加大学州立博物馆将举办公开展览。EPME作为一个终端成员生态灾难的例子已经获得了相关性，这种灾难可能在未来被复制。沿海地区是当今人口最密集的地区之一，但以前对EPME的研究主要集中在海洋和大陆内部的记录上。在调查跨越温带到极地纬度的约2000公里海岸线上积累的沉积物时，拟议的项目将提高对大陆边缘对快速环境变化的反应的理解。这项工作将有可能改变对显生宙最严重的全球生态危机的时间框架、驱动机制、全球变化和最终原因的理解。

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.