Collaborative Research: Trans-Amazon Drilling Project

热带南美洲是地球上的一个关键地区，亚马逊-安第斯雨林拥有一半以上的陆地植物物种。这种巨大的生物多样性是如何产生的，一直是现代科学的基本问题之一，自达尔文和其他世纪的博物学家的开创性工作以来，这个问题一直激发着科学研究和辩论。该项目将从巴西赤道亚马逊地区的古代沉积盆地获取岩心，该地区从安第斯山脉延伸到大西洋边缘。这一“跨亚马逊钻探项目”将跨越南美洲大陆及其近海大陆架的大部分宽度。每个钻孔计划达到约2公里深，恢复该地区约7千万年的历史。 一个庞大的国际科学家小组将采用一系列方法研究这些岩芯，以记录整个亚马逊盆地地质历史上植物物种的变化，并确定自然环境的演变（包括气候变化、安第斯山脉的隆起和亚马逊河的发展）如何塑造植物和动物多样性的产生和分布。与巴西合作伙伴的合作将提供有关亚马逊地质和生物历史的相关教育材料，包括正在进行的中小学生教育方案，通过钻探揭示长期历史的博物馆展览，以及宣传活动，以提高公众对地质历史如何影响森林及其物种的认识，从而激发了人们对保护这一宝贵资源的更大兴趣。亚马逊-安第斯雨林的森林和相关生物区系与自然景观一起演变，将地球内部的过程与气候、地表景观、生态系统和生物多样性紧密联系起来。该项目将调查从安第斯前陆到大西洋边缘的整个巴西近赤道亚马逊地区的地质和气候演变，以及这一历史对区域乃至全球范围内生物演变的影响。钻探将在沿现代亚马逊河沿着排列的古代沉积盆地中进行，这些盆地横跨巴西整个近赤道亚马逊地区，从安第斯前陆到大西洋。这条横断面将跨越西经40至73度，因此环绕地球赤道周长的近10%。该项目将探讨亚马逊地区地质学和生物学之间的基本联系，包括：（1）在被子植物占主导地位的巨热森林的整个新生代历史中，整个亚马逊盆地植物多样性的变化;（2）自然环境的演变，包括气候、构造运动和景观变化，以及这如何塑造了新热带植物多样性的分布及其物种的起源;三叠纪-侏罗纪亚马逊期闪长岩的成因及中大西洋岩浆区（CAMP）的全球环境影响这是地球历史上最重要的岩浆事件之一。该项目的钻孔岩芯将在NSF支持的设施中存档，供研究人员将来使用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Tropical South America is a key region on Earth, and the Amazon-Andean rainforest hosts over half of all terrestrial plant species. How this great biodiversity arose remains one of the foundational problems in modern science, and the question has spurred scientific research and debate since the pioneering work of Darwin and other naturalists of the 19th century. This project will obtain drill cores from the ancient sedimentary basins of the equatorial Amazon region of Brazil, an area that extends from the Andes to the Atlantic Ocean margin. This "Trans-Amazon Drilling Project" will span most of the width of continental South America and its offshore shelf. Each drill hole is planned to reach about 2 km deep, recovering the approximately 70-million-year history of the region. A large international team of scientists will apply an array of methodologies to study these cores in order to document the changes in plant species across the Amazon basin throughout its geological history and to determine how the evolution of the physical environment (including climate variation, uplift of the Andes, and development of the Amazon River) shaped the generation and distribution of plant and animal diversity. Collaborations with Brazilian partners will provide relevant educational material on Amazon geologic and biotic history, including ongoing educational programs for primary and secondary students, museum exhibits on unraveling long-term history via drilling, and outreach to enhance public appreciation of how geologic history influenced the forest and its species, thereby stimulating greater interest in conservation of this invaluable resource.The forests and associated biota of the Amazon-Andean rainforest have evolved together with the physical landscape, closely linking processes in Earth's interior with climate, surface landscapes, ecosystems, and biodiversity. This project will investigate the geologic and climatic evolution of the entire near-equatorial Amazon region of Brazil, from the Andean foreland to the Atlantic Ocean margin, and the impact of that history on biotic evolution at regional to global scales. Drilling will occur in ancient sedimentary basins aligned along the modern Amazon River in a transect of sites that span the entire near-equatorial Amazon region of Brazil, from the Andean foreland to the Atlantic Ocean. This transect will span 40 to 73 degrees W longitude, thus encircling nearly 10% of Earth's equatorial circumference. This project will address fundamental linkages between the geology and biology of the Amazon region, including: (1) the changes in plant diversity across the Amazon Basin throughout the Cenozoic history of the angiosperm-dominated megathermal forests; (2) the evolution of the physical environment, including climate, tectonism, and landscape change, and how this has shaped the distribution of neotropical plant diversity and the origins of its species; and (3) the origins of the Triassic-Jurassic Amazonian diabase sills and the global environmental impact of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP) intrusions, one of the most significant igneous events in Earth history. Drill cores from this project will be archived at a NSF-supported facility for future access by researchers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.