NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Biogeography and community assembly of North American Carboniferous ecosystems

这一行动资助了NSF 2022财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大了生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。该研究金支持一项针对该研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学中代表性不足的群体的参与。这个项目将研究地球历史上第一次出现森林的时间，四足动物(四肢脊椎动物)起源并多样化，成为现存陆地动物的祖先。利用化石记录和包括解剖学、地质学和生态学在内的方法，该研究员将分析现代陆地生态系统的古代起源，以确定生态系统如何应对环境和生物多样性的变化。重要的是要了解到目前为止地球上生命的历史，因为这些知识将告诉我们如何成为更好的自然和建造环境的管家。这位研究员将增加古生物学和地球科学的多样性，并为来自代表性不足群体的学生充当榜样和导师。公众宣传活动将进一步扩大该项目的影响。四足动物起源于约3.7亿年前的泥盆纪晚期。到3000万年前的石炭纪早期，它们已经超越了泥盆纪特有的水生、鱼类般的形态，形成了各种各样的身体形态、大小以及水生和陆生生活方式，跨越了利桑菲亚和羊栖生物两大类群。整个石炭纪和进入二叠纪的陆生四足动物的多样性不断增加，其特征是从依赖水生活动的“原始”食物网过渡到完全以陆地为基础的“现代”群落。然而，这一假设是基于四足动物陆化的线性、适应性过程的假设，这一过程越来越受到化石数据的挑战，以及泥盆纪-石炭纪时期的大陆结构。这项研究将结合化石的解剖学描述、地质和地理数据以及比较食物网模型来调查四足陆系化的过程和背景。该研究员将接受田野调查和使用比较古生态方法方面的培训。研究结果将在科学会议上分享，通过在开放获取的期刊上发表，并通过社区外展活动与更广泛的公众分享。这一奖项反映了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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. This project will investigate the time in Earth’s history when forests first appeared, and tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) originated and diversified into the ancestors of living land animals. Using the fossil record and approaches including anatomy, geology, and ecology the fellow will analyze the ancient origins of modern land ecosystems, to determine how ecosystems respond to changes in environment and biodiversity. It is important to understand the history of life on Earth up to the present, as this knowledge will inform how to become better stewards of the natural and built environments. The fellow will increase the diversity of paleontology and earth sciences and serve as a role model and mentor for students from underrepresented groups. Public outreach events will further broaden the impact of the project. Tetrapods originated in the Late Devonian approximately 370 million years ago. By 30 million years ago, in the Early Carboniferous, they had expanded beyond the obligately aquatic, fish-like Devonian forms into a great range of body forms, sizes, and both aquatic and terrestrial modes of life, spanning both the lissamphibian and amniote total groups. The increasing diversity of terrestrial tetrapods throughout the Carboniferous and into the Permian has been characterized as a transition from ‘primitive’ food webs dependent on aquatic activity to ‘modern’, wholly land-based communities. However, this hypothesis is based on assumptions of a linear, adaptive process of tetrapod terrestrialization which is increasingly challenged by fossil data, and the continental structure during the Devonian-Carboniferous period. This study will combine anatomical description of fossils, geological and geographic data, and comparative food web modeling to investigate the process and context of tetrapod terrestrialization. The fellow will be trained in the conduct of fieldwork and the use of comparative paleoecological methods. Findings will be shared at scientific conferences, through publication in open-access journals, and with the broader public via community outreach events.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.