Collaborative Research: Integrating tectonics, climate, and mammal diversity

合作研究：整合构造、气候和哺乳动物多样性

• 批准号: 1814029
• 负责人: Ran Feng
• 金额: $ 12.07万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1814029&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Integrating; tectonics; climate

The researchers seek to understand how movement of tectonic plates, which produced major mountain barriers and influenced regional climate, controlled the evolution and geographic distribution of mammals in western North America. The EarthScope Transportable Array, a network of seismic stations, has produced data that allow an unprecedented view of the Earth's structure in the western United States, providing a unique starting point from which to consider how it came to have the 3-D structure that is imaged by seismic methods. This, combined with a rich published record of structures that record changes in plate tectonics and deformation history over the past 36 Ma, allows us to estimate crustal thickness and topography throughout the western US over this important interval in mammal evolution. The researchers propose to use 3D models to understand the collapse of topography in the western US, which led to marked changes in mammal diversification that coincide with changes in the strain rates recorded in the fault movement record. The research will be accomplished through collaboration of teams that will 1) Improve dating of the sedimentary record that contains the mammalian record, as well as focused sampling of fossils from under-represented areas and time intervals, 2) produce 3D models for lithosphere modification that account for changes in heat flux and boundary conditions, 3) model regional climate that builds on topographic constraints, 4) analyze mammal speciation and diversification and its links over time with topography and climatic gradients, and 5) synthesize all of the results into a 4D model for change through the past 36 Ma. The ultimate goal is to produce a more fundamental understanding of the factors responsible for crustal and topographic changes and how these influence mammal speciation and diversification. The quantitative analysis of crust and mantle dynamics provides an important framework for advancing knowledge in fields linked to the economic geology (mineral belts) of the southwestern US. The research will provide valuable technical training to high school, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral researchers. The collaborative team will develop several outreach products, including an informational video for the general public, materials for museum presentations and exhibits at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, the departmental Museum Display at Stony Brook, and materials for talks and presentations to the public.The integrated topography model shows a Nevadaplano of ~4.36 +/- 0.4 km (1-sigma) average elevation in central, eastern, and southern Nevada, western Utah, parts of easternmost California, and central portions of westernmost Arizona at 36 Ma. Our model shows that highlands of the Nevadaplano connected to a continuous mountain chain through southeastern Arizona and into northern Mexico. This topography results from the long history of crustal shortening from Sevier - Laramide orogenies. The topography of this massive range collapsed from 36 Ma to the present, leading to as much as 200% extension, the present-day Basin and Range, and exhumation of metamorphic core complexes along the belt of thickened crust. Distributions of lithospheric body forces continue to drive this collapse today. Differences in gravitational potential energy are known to drive extensional deformation, particularly in regions of extreme topography. Yet the reasons for the timing of the collapse, along with the magnitudes and distributions of deviatoric stresses responsible for the collapse, remain enigmatic. The changing topography associated with extensional collapse dramatically altered the climate and mammal diversity dynamics of the western Cordillera. Our research targets three topics within the Integrated Earth System: (1) The topography, distribution, and 3-D deviatoric stresses responsible for the collapse history, (2) The climatic response to the collapse and generation of climate gradients, and (3) The response of mammal lineages and faunas to changing topographic and climate gradients and removal of topographic barriers. No previous study of climate gradients and their impact on mammal diversity has ever been integrated with quantitative kinematic and dynamic reconstructions of continental deformation. The intellectual merit of this study involves the power of combining these fields, while incorporating formal uncertainties in models at all stages of analysis.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.

研究人员试图了解构造板块的运动如何产生主要的山脉障碍并影响区域气候，控制北美西部哺乳动物的进化和地理分布。EarthScope便携式阵列是一个地震台站网络，它所产生的数据使人们能够对美国西部的地球结构进行前所未有的观察，为研究如何形成通过地震方法成像的三维结构提供了一个独特的起点。这一点，结合丰富的出版记录的结构，记录在过去的36 Ma的板块构造和变形历史的变化，使我们能够估计地壳厚度和地形在整个美国西部在哺乳动物进化的这一重要间隔。研究人员建议使用3D模型来了解美国西部地形的崩溃，这导致了哺乳动物多样化的显着变化，与断层运动记录中记录的应变率变化相吻合。该研究将通过团队合作来完成，这些团队将1）改进包含哺乳动物记录的沉积记录的年代测定，以及从代表性不足的地区和时间间隔中集中采样化石，2）制作岩石圈修改的3D模型，说明热通量和边界条件的变化，3）建立在地形约束基础上的区域气候模型，4）分析哺乳动物物种形成和多样化及其与地形和气候梯度的关系，5）将所有结果综合成过去36 Ma变化的4D模型。最终目标是对地壳和地形变化的因素以及这些因素如何影响哺乳动物的物种形成和多样化产生更根本的理解。地壳和地幔动力学的定量分析为推进与美国西南部经济地质（矿产带）相关领域的知识提供了一个重要框架。这项研究将为高中、本科、研究生和博士后研究人员提供有价值的技术培训。该合作小组将开发几种外展产品，包括面向公众的信息视频、密歇根大学自然历史博物馆的博物馆介绍和展览材料、斯托尼布鲁克的部门博物馆展览，综合地形模型显示内华达高原约4.36 +/- 0.4 km（1-sigma）内华达州中部、东部和南部、犹他州西部、加州最东部的部分地区以及亚利桑那州最西部的中部地区的平均海拔为36 Ma。我们的模型显示，内华达高原连接到一个连续的山脉通过亚利桑那州东南部和北方墨西哥。这种地形是由塞维尔-拉腊米造山作用的地壳缩短的长期历史造成的.这个巨大山脉的地形从36 Ma到现在崩塌，导致了多达200%的伸展，即现在的盆地和山脉，以及沿着加厚地壳带的变质核杂岩的折返。今天，岩石圈体力的分布继续推动这种崩溃。已知重力势能的差异会驱动伸展变形，特别是在极端地形的地区。然而，坍塌发生的时间，以及导致坍塌的偏应力的大小和分布，沿着发生的原因仍然是个谜。与伸展塌陷相关的地形变化极大地改变了西科迪勒拉山脉的气候和哺乳动物多样性动态。我们的研究目标是综合地球系统中的三个主题：（1）地形，分布和三维偏应力负责崩溃的历史，（2）气候响应崩溃和气候梯度的产生，（3）哺乳动物谱系和动物群的响应变化的地形和气候梯度和地形障碍的消除。没有以前的研究气候梯度及其对哺乳动物多样性的影响已经与定量运动学和动力学重建大陆变形。这项研究的智力价值包括结合这些领域的力量，同时在分析的所有阶段将正式的不确定性纳入模型。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

项目成果

Poleward amplification, seasonal rainfall and forest heterogeneity in the Miocene of the eastern USA

• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2023.104073
• 发表时间: 2023-02
• 期刊: Global and Planetary Change
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: T. Reichgelt;A. Baumgartner;R. Feng;D. Willard

Climate as the Great Equalizer of Continental‐Scale Erosion

• DOI: 10.1029/2021gl095008
• 发表时间: 2021-10
• 期刊: Geophysical Research Letters
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: G. Jepson;B. Carrapa;J. Gillespie;R. Feng;P. DeCelles;P. Kapp;C. Tabor;Jiang Zhu

Ecological and hydroclimate responses to strengthening of the Hadley circulation in South America during the Late Miocene cooling

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810721116
• 发表时间: 2019-05-14
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Carrapa, Barbara;Clementz, Mark;Feng, Ran
• 通讯作者: Feng, Ran