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

NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：北美石炭纪生态系统的生物地理学和群落组装

• 批准号: 2209043
• 负责人: Benjamin Otoo
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Otoo, Benjamin K
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209043&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; Biogeography

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.

这项行动资助了2022财年的NSF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。该研究金支持研究员的一项研究和培训计划，该计划将增加在生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。这个项目将调查地球历史上森林首次出现的时间，以及四足动物（四肢脊椎动物）的起源和多样化成为陆地动物的祖先。利用化石记录和方法，包括解剖学，地质学和生态学，研究员将分析现代陆地生态系统的古老起源，以确定生态系统如何应对环境和生物多样性的变化。重要的是要了解地球上生命的历史，直到现在，因为这些知识将告知如何成为自然和建筑环境的更好的管家。该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提供榜样和导师。公共外联活动将进一步扩大该项目的影响。 四足动物起源于大约3.7亿年前的泥盆纪晚期。到了3000万年前，在石炭纪早期，它们已经超越了泥盆纪的专性水生、鱼类的形式，发展成了各种各样的体型、大小、水生和陆生的生活方式，跨越了利桑菲宾和阿森诺特两个总群。在整个石炭纪和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”食物网向“现代”完全以陆地为基础的群落过渡。然而，这一假设是基于四足动物陆生化的线性适应性过程的假设，这越来越受到化石数据和泥盆纪-石炭纪时期大陆结构的挑战。本研究将结合联合收割机化石的解剖描述、地质地理资料，以及比较食物网模型来探讨四足动物陆生化的过程与背景。该研究员将接受进行实地考察和使用比较古生态学方法的培训。研究结果将在科学会议上分享，通过在开放获取期刊上发表，并通过社区外展活动与更广泛的公众分享。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。