CAREER: Assessing the Connection Between Ecological and Environmental Collapse During the Pliensbachian-Toarcian Carbon-cycle Perturbation in Morocco

人们对今天海洋生态系统健康状况的下降感到担忧，过去发生的类似事件可以为我们目前的生态系统如何生存提供信息。一次这样的事件发生在大约1.83亿年前的侏罗纪早期，当时珊瑚礁在温暖、低氧、酸性海洋的时期经历了大规模的灭绝。摩洛哥高阿特拉斯山脉详细记录了这一早期侏罗纪事件，那里的研究正在确定(1)生态系统何时消失；(2)哪些生物幸存(哪些没有)，以及(3)是什么环境变化导致了生态系统的崩溃。为了与公众分享这项工作，正在设计一款棋盘游戏，以教育玩家面对极端环境变化时的侏罗纪珊瑚礁、进化和灭绝。这个游戏被整合到初中、高中和大学的教育模块中；主要的研究问题是：(1)生态系统崩溃发生在早侏罗世的确切时间，在不同生态系统类型(例如，珊瑚礁和平底群落)之间是否同步？(2)是什么杀死机制(例如，缺氧、酸化)导致了生物崩溃，它们是否与大型火成岩省的侵位有关？(3)海洋群落恢复的时间和速度是什么？这些问题将通过摩洛哥高级地图集的实地跨学科研究得到解答。定量的古生态和沉积学调查正在与一套地球化学数据(例如，温度、火山作用和水氧水平的替代物)相结合，以了解早侏罗世生物崩塌的原因、时间和后果。这种综合的、多学科的综合正在向古生物学家、生态学家和气候科学家提供信息，使某些生态系统能够在一场重大的全球灾难中幸存下来。这款棋盘游戏的教育效果是通过在当地学校和大学进行的Beta试验进行评估的，并通过学生和教师对享受和学习结果的自我报告调查。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There are concerns about the declining health of ocean ecosystems today, and similar events in the past can provide information about how our current ecosystems might survive. One such event occurred during the Early Jurassic about 183 million years ago when reefs experienced major extinctions during periods of warm, low-oxygen, acidic oceans. This Early Jurassic event is recorded in great detail in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains, and research there is establishing (1) when ecosystems disappeared; (2) which organisms survived (and which did not), and (3) what environmental changes led to ecosystem collapse. To share this work with the public, a board game is being designed to educate players about Jurassic reefs, evolution, and extinction in the face of extreme environmental change. This game is integrated into middle school, high school, and college-level educational modules; it can also be enjoyed by the general public and will be made available in multiple languages, thus enhancing science literacy, both locally and internationally.The primary research questions being addressed are: (1) When precisely does ecosystem collapse occur in the Early Jurassic and was it synchronous across ecosystem types (i.e., reefs versus level-bottom communities)? (2) What kill mechanism(s) (e.g., anoxia, acidification) caused biotic collapse and are they linked to large igneous province emplacement? (3) What were the timing and tempo of recovery for marine communities? These issues will be answered through field-based, interdisciplinary research in the Moroccan High Atlas. Quantitative paleoecological and sedimentological surveys are being combined with a suite of geochemical data (e.g., proxies for temperature, volcanism, and water oxygen levels) to understand the causes, timing, and consequences of biotic collapse in the Early Jurassic. This integrated, multi-disciplinary synthesis is informing paleontologists, ecologists, and climate scientists about the conditions that allowed certain ecosystems to survive a major global catastrophe. The educational efficacy of the board game is assessed through beta trials in local schools and universities with self-reported surveys of enjoyment and learning outcomes from both students and teachers.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.