Geological and Paleoanthropological Data Harmonization Workshop

地质和古人类学数据协调研讨会

基本信息

批准号：
1740444
负责人：
Christopher Campisano
金额：
$ 5万
依托单位：
Arizona State University
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-08-01 至 2019-07-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1740444&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
Geological Paleoanthropological Data Harmonization Workshop

项目摘要

Research findings from one project or site are usually more informative about underlying phenomena when they can be compared with data from other relevant research sites. To be meaningful, such comparisons may require shared vocabulary, methods, and data formats, in addition to collaboration across research groups. This field-based workshop will bring together geologists and paleoanthropologists to discuss best practices and protocols for comparing data across research sites, using several Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominin fossil locations in the Awash basin of Ethiopia. The workshop will also generate new research questions for future collaborative projects that span beyond individual project boundaries. Participants will include graduate students, early career scientists, international scholars, and groups underrepresented in STEM disciplines. A component of this workshop will contribute to the NSF-supported PaleoCore project by helping to synthesize and standardize geological mapping data and creating a template that can be used by any other geological project. This award is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering.A major impediment to the study of human origins and evolution has been that field studies are often conducted within the bounds of spatially restricted project areas. These project area boundaries are rarely based on broader ecological or geological constraints, and these limitations impede the formulation of overarching research questions that are critical for understanding hominin evolution and its context over larger scales of time and space. For geologists, conducting inter- and intraregional comparisons can be challenging as they do not always have direct knowledge of information from adjacent research project areas boundaries across which outcrops are contiguous. As a result, researchers have not effectively and comprehensively addressed broader regional-scale research questions. This workshop reflects the idea that substantial progress could be made in understanding the geological context of human evolution through better communication, collaborative work, and transparent data sharing. No one location/research project in the lower Awash River valley preserves a complete and continuous sequence of Pliocene and early Pleistocene sediments. When combined, however, they encompass an impressive temporal and spatial coverage of early hominin habitats within a complex rifting environment. There is tremendous potential to use the combined record from these project areas to evaluate how rifting has evolved and to explore the interplay between climate, tectonics, hominin evolution, and paleoecology in the Afar. The workshop will also result in a report that discusses best practices for planning and conducting research across separate but related research sites.

一个项目或网站的研究发现通常可以将基本现象与其他相关研究站点的数据进行比较时更有信息。有意义的是，除了跨研究小组的协作外，这种比较可能需要共享的词汇，方法和数据格式。这个基于现场的研讨会将汇集地质学家和古人类学家，讨论在埃塞俄比亚的Awash盆地中使用几个上新世和早期更新世的人类化石位置，讨论用于比较研究地点数据的最佳实践和协议。该研讨会还将为未来的协作项目产生新的研究问题，这些项目超出了个别项目的边界。参与者将包括研究生，早期职业科学家，国际学者以及在STEM学科中的人数不足。该研讨会的一个组成部分将通过帮助综合和标准化地质映射数据并创建任何其他地质项目可以使用的模板来帮助NSF支持的古核项目。该奖项由国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。对人类起源和进化的研究的重大障碍是，现场研究通常是在空间限制的项目领域范围内进行的。这些项目领域的边界很少基于更广泛的生态或地质限制，这些局限性阻碍了整理研究问题的提出，这些研究问题对于理解人类进化及其在更大范围的时间和空间规模上至关重要。对于地质学家而言，进行区域内和区域内比较可能具有挑战性，因为它们并不总是从相邻的研究项目领域的信息中直接了解露头连续的信息。结果，研究人员没有有效，全面地解决更广泛的区域尺度研究问题。该研讨会反映了这样一个想法，即可以通过更好的沟通，协作工作和透明的数据共享来理解人类进化的地质环境。下奥瓦什河谷中没有一个位置/研究项目可以保留完整而连续的上新世和早期更新世沉积物的序列。但是，当组合在一起时，它们包括在复杂的裂痕环境中对早期人类栖息地的令人印象深刻的时间和空间覆盖。利用这些项目领域的合并记录来评估裂变的发展方式，并探索远处的气候，构造，人类进化和古生态学之间的相互作用。该研讨会还将导致一份报告，讨论跨不同但相关的研究网站计划和进行研究的最佳实践。