Collaborative Research: RUI: A High resolution Paleontological, Ichnological, and Chemostratigraphic Study of Late Devonian Mass Extinctions

岩石记录保存了生命史上过去事件的详细历史，理解这些事件，特别是不寻常的生物转换事件，是至关重要的，特别是在我们当前的多样性危机时期。地质历史上曾发生过许多大规模的物种灭绝事件，尽管对其成因机制进行了广泛的研究，但弗拉斯—法门纪晚泥盆纪大灭绝事件的成因机制仍是一个谜。尽管提出了许多杀死机制，但海洋缺氧被广泛认为是一个主要因素，部分原因是富含有机物的黑色页岩无处不在。这项研究将测试广泛的缺氧和/或普遍的缺氧（硫化物水柱）条件，这些条件与劳伦森盆地保存的几个生物更替事件有关。pi将使用综合古生物学、无机地球化学和脂质生物标志物方法，在高空间分辨率下重建古代微生物和后生动物源生物输入的长期变化，以及这些古代表生海道的海洋氧化还原结构。他们将测试灭绝事件的规模和时间与当时盛行的氧气和缺氧应激模式之间的相关性。结合古生物学和地球化学指标来识别黑色页岩相中精细尺度的底水氧含量的方法已经实现（Boyer等人，2011），但尚未应用于了解生命史上重大事件的动态。我们对北美晚泥盆纪生物圈和环境演化的新发现将为生物地球化学、古生物学/古生物学、进化生物学和海洋大气演化的未来工作提供信息和指导。本研究的核心是将有机和无机地球化学方法与古生物学在广泛的野外模板中建立独特的桥梁，以产生高分辨率的生物和化学地层学记录，这些记录跨越了晚泥盆纪大灭绝事件及其后果。这项研究计划的核心是通过直接参与研究项目或通过各种外展活动，培训和教育一群在加州大学洛杉矶分校和纽约州立大学奥斯威戈分校从事地球科学的有才华的研究生、本科生和K-12学生，其中许多人来自代表性不足的种族。

RUI, Collaborative Research: A High resolution Paleontological, Ichnological, and Chemostratigraphic Study of Late Devonian Mass ExtinctionsbyDiana Boyer, EAR-1348981, SUNY OswegoGordon Love, EAR-1348988, Univ. California, RiversideABSTRACTThe rock record preserves a detailed history of past events in life history, and understanding these events, particularly episodes of unusual biotic turnover, is of paramount importance, particularly in this time of our current diversity crises. There have been many large scale extinction events throughout geologic history, and despite extensive study, the Late Devonian mass extinction events in the Frasnian-Famennian still remain enigmatic in terms of a causal mechanism. Although numerous kill mechanisms have been proposed, marine anoxia is widely thought to be a major contributing factor, in part because of the pervasiveness of organic-rich black shale. This study will test for extensive anoxic and/or pervasive euxinic (sulfidic water column) conditions associated with several biotic turnover events preserved in a Laurentian basin. PIs will use an integrated paleontological, inorganic geochemical, and lipid biomarker approach performed at high spatial resolution to reconstruct secular changes in ancient microbial and metazoan source organism inputs, and marine redox structure in these ancient epeiric seaways. They will test for a correlation between the magnitude and timing of extinction events and patterns of oxygen and euxinic stress which prevailed.The utility of combining paleontological and geochemical proxies to recognize bottom water oxygen levels on a fine-scale in black shale facies has been realized (Boyer et al., 2011), but not yet applied to understand the dynamics of major events in the history of life. The new light we are shedding on Late Devonian biospheric and environmental evolution in North America will inform and direct future work in biogeochemistry, paleontology/paleobiology, evolutionary biology, and ocean-atmosphere evolution. Central to this research is a unique bridging of organic and inorganic geochemical methods with paleontology within a broad field-based template to yield high-resolution bio- and chemostratigraphic records that span the Late Devonian mass extinction events and their aftermath. At the heart of this research proposal is the training and education of a group of talented graduate, undergraduate and K-12 school students in the geosciences at UCR and SUNY Oswego, many from underrepresented ethnic groups, through a combination of direct involvement in the research project or through a variety of outreach ventures.