Collaborative Research: BoCP-Implementation: Testing Evolutionary Models of Biotic Survival and Recovery from the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction and Climate Crisis

合作研究：BoCP-实施：测试二叠纪-三叠纪大规模灭绝和气候危机中生物生存和恢复的进化模型

• 批准号: 2325381
• 负责人: Adam Huttenlocker
• 金额: $ 32.88万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-01 至 2026-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2325381&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; BoCP; Implementation; Testing

The Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME, ca. 251.9 million years ago) was the most catastrophic of the “Big Five” mass extinctions in Earth’s history. Massive volcanic events likely triggered a runaway greenhouse, resulting in the loss of about 85-90% of species globally. Studies over the last 20 years agree that modern species loss rivals the PTME, making it a significant and underutilized “deep time” study system that connects environmental change to functional biodiversity. While past studies have focused on the external causes of the extinction, this research will investigate ecosystem recovery from the PTME in South Africa’s Karoo Basin. Awareness of which species and ecosystems were more vulnerable or resilient to climate warming in the past is essential to guide conservation management by predicting long-term biotic responses to future environmental change.This research will comprise a multidisciplinary geochronologic and paleontological study of South Africa’s main Karoo Basin. We will assemble a stratigraphic database of fossil vertebrate occurrences and investigate the timing of vertebrate extinction and recovery relative to the geologic timescale, and we will test whether pulsed shifts in ecological diversity correlate to distinct climate events (e.g., the Early Triassic hyperthermal). To achieve these goals, we will 1) Synthesize geochronologic age controls and identify the precise position of the Permo-Triassic boundary in the Karoo Basin; 2) Identify shifts in ecomorphological and body size disparity within a novel high resolution stratigraphic framework; 3) Elucidate the influence of higher-level factors such as community structure on vertebrate diversity during the Early Triassic climate crisis; 4) Emphasize public outreach through educational theater in local South African languages (Puppet Planet), capacity-building, permanent archiving of physical specimens and digital data for future study (Virtual Field Trips, museum exhibit upgrades), and strengthening international collaborations between the USA and South Africa. Our collaborative research and outreach initiatives will raise awareness of the impacts of extreme environmental instability on vertebrate functional diversity and size evolution over time, with great value not only for understanding the PTME, but also conservation efforts in our modern biodiversity crisis.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.

二叠纪-三叠纪大灭绝（PTME，CA。2.519亿年前）是地球历史上最具灾难性的“五大”大规模灭绝。大规模的火山活动可能引发失控的温室效应，导致全球约85-90%的物种消失。过去20年的研究一致认为，现代物种损失与PTME相媲美，使其成为一个重要且未充分利用的“深时间”研究系统，将环境变化与功能性生物多样性联系起来。虽然过去的研究主要集中在灭绝的外部原因上，但这项研究将调查南非卡鲁盆地PTME的生态系统恢复。认识到哪些物种和生态系统在过去更容易受到气候变暖的影响或更具弹性，对于通过预测未来环境变化的长期生物反应来指导保护管理至关重要。我们将收集化石脊椎动物出现的地层数据库，并调查脊椎动物灭绝和恢复相对于地质时间尺度的时间，我们将测试生态多样性的脉冲变化是否与不同的气候事件相关（例如，早三叠世超热）。为了实现这些目标，我们将1）综合地质年代学年龄控制，并确定卡鲁盆地二叠纪-三叠纪边界的精确位置; 2）在一个新的高分辨率地层框架内确定生态形态和身体大小差异的变化; 3）阐明更高层次的因素，如群落结构对早三叠世气候危机期间脊椎动物多样性的影响; 4）通过南非当地语言的教育剧院（木偶星球），能力建设，物理标本和数字数据的永久存档（虚拟实地考察，博物馆展览升级）以及加强美国和南非之间的国际合作，强调公共宣传。我们的合作研究和推广活动将提高人们对极端环境不稳定对脊椎动物功能多样性和大小演变的影响的认识，不仅对理解PTME具有重要价值，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知识价值和更广泛的影响进行评估来支持审查标准。