Collaborative Research: After the Bridgerian Crash: An Integrated Analysis of Mammalian Paleocommunities and Paleoecologies During the Middle Eocene.

现代气候危机似乎是前所未有的，因为它代表了在冰河时期开始的整体降温时期全球变暖的高峰。然而，许多快速发生的全球变暖事件被记录在深时间。该项目将通过调查在犹他州东北部发现的约4500万年前的沉积物中哺乳动物多样性、植被和土壤发育的变化，研究生态系统如何对极端变暖做出反应。这项工作的结果将提供一个机会，利用过去来了解哺乳动物和植物群落对长期快速变暖事件的当前反应，这些信息对生境资源的管理至关重要。本研究的其他更广泛的影响包括本科学生科学专业知识的发展；通过展览和模块在多个博物馆进行科学推广；通过科学传播、开放获取出版物和社交媒体共享数据、方法和结果；以及K-12学生的课程开发。始新世中期气候优化（MECO）使全球表面温度升高了4摄氏度，这与2100年我们现代气候危机预测的升高幅度相同。该项目的目标是生成一个多方面的模型，将涵盖MECO的生物变化模式联系起来，从而更多地了解与我们自己的热范围相似的变暖事件。这将通过将地层和地球化学数据与生物地层学和生态形态分析相结合来完成，以评估在MECO事件发生之前、期间和之后犹他州unta盆地的栖息地和哺乳动物群落结构的变化。为了实现该项目的目标，一个由沉积学家、地球化学家、孢粉学家和古生物学家组成的团队将使用他们的综合方法来评估生态系统对极端变暖事件的反应。这种综合方法的成功有望改变我们对哺乳动物物种和栖息地对全球变暖事件的反应的认识。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，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。

The modern climatic crisis appears unprecedented as it represents a spike in global warming during an overall cooling period that began during glacial times. Yet, numerous rapidly occurring global warming events are recorded in deep time. This project will study how ecosystems respond to extreme warming by investigating changes in mammalian diversity, vegetation, and soil development in ~45 million-year-old deposits found in northeastern Utah. The results of this work will provide an opportunity to use the past to understand the present response of mammalian and plant communities to rapid warming events in the long term, information that is critical for the management of habitat resources. Additional broader impacts of this study include the development of scientific expertise in undergraduate students; science outreach at multiple museums via exhibits and modules; sharing data, methods, and results via scientific dissemination, open access publications and social media; and curriculum development for K-12 students.The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO), increased global surface temperatures by 4 degrees Celsius, which is the same increase predicted for our modern climatic crisis by 2100. The goal of this project is to generate a multi-faceted model that will correlate patterns of biotic change bracketing the MECO and thus learn more about a warming event that is similar in thermal scope to our own. This will be accomplished by integrating stratigraphic and geochemical data with biostratigraphic and ecomorphological analyses to evaluate changes in habitat and mammalian community structure in the Uinta Basin, Utah, before, during, and after the MECO event. To achieve the project goals a team of sedimentologists, geochemists, palynologists, and paleontologists will use their integrated approach to evaluate how ecosystems responded to an extreme warming event. The success of this integrated approach is expected to transform our knowledge of mammalian species and habitat response to a global warming event.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.