Biostratigraphic Investigations: Refining the Geologic Time Scale to Calibrate the Past and Predict Climate Change and Mass Extinction Effects

今天，世界受到气候变化，物种灭绝以及植物和动物茁壮成长的变化等关键问题的影响，因为海平面上升和温度影响生物体的生存环境。 我对二叠纪系统（299 252万年前）的研究旨在阐明什么可能是最好的古代时间间隔，以显示这些问题如何影响地球上的生命在过去。深时研究与近时研究的分辨率不匹配，但这些事件已经完成了全部过程，并提供了自然系统如何适应气候变化的例子。二叠纪记录了地球的倒数第二个冰河时代和最大的大规模灭绝。我对二叠纪末大灭绝的研究促成了一个新的共识，即它是由气候变化引起的，由一个名为西伯利亚陷阱的火山地区大量释放的气体引发的。气候变化的影响在海洋和陆地环境中都很明显，但相对时间问题尚未解决。 作为一名古生物学家，我既设定了国际背景，又充当了计时员，以确定何时发生了什么。 我通过研究被称为牙形刺的微化石来做到这一点，牙形刺在整个二叠纪的大多数岩石类型中都很常见。进化使我们能够将它们用作时钟来校准深时间。它们的结构和组成的微小变化使我们能够识别和关联世界各地的特定时间间隔（生物地层学），并有助于校准地质时标，这是我们学科的基本工具之一。我的研究团队是多学科的，包括世界各地学术机构的地质年代学家，地球化学家和其他古生物学家。我的研究生和本科生，以及博士后学者，有机会成为这些合作的一部分。包括我提出的研究计划的十二个项目，包括六个长期目标，旨在解决与二叠纪气候变化有关的迁移和灭绝的时间问题，并在这样做的过程中为所有其他地层学研究提供了一个模板。这是通过调查世界各地的地区，特别是加拿大西部，美国中部大陆和中国南部来实现的。这些地区曾经是古特提斯海和泛大洋东缘（类似于今天的地中海和太平洋）的一部分。许多项目涉及实地部分，但也将使用存档材料。所有项目都包括实验室研究，涉及从岩石基质中恢复牙形刺和其他化石，并包括收集额外的地球化学数据。我们在岩石中发现的小型化石钟的时间细节可以用来破译世界各地盆地的历史，以及它们的能源潜力。它不仅让我们看到了地球的历史，也让我们看到了我们可能的未来。

Today, the world is affected by critical issues such as climate change, species extinction, and changes to where plants and animals thrive because rising ocean levels and temperatures affect where organisms can live. My research on the Permian System (299 252 million years ago) aims to illuminate what may well be the best ancient time interval to show how these issues affected life on the planet in the past. Deep-time studies do not match resolution of near-time studies, but these events have run their full course and provide examples of how natural systems adapted as climate changed. The Permian records the Earth's penultimate ice age and its largest mass extinction. My research on the end-Permian mass extinction has contributed to the emerging consensus that it resulted from climate change, triggered by a massive release of gases from a volcanic region called the Siberian Traps. The impact of climate change is evident in both marine and land-based environments, but the relative timing is not resolved. As a paleontologist, I set both the international context and serve as the time-keeper to determine what happened and when. I do this through my study of microfossils called conodonts that are common in most rock types throughout the Permian. Evolution allows us to use them as clocks to calibrate deep time. Small changes in their structure and composition allow us to identify and correlate specific intervals of time around the world (biostratigraphy) and contribute to the calibration of the Geologic Time Scale one of the fundamental tools of our discipline. My research team is multidisciplinary, including geochronologists, geochemists, and other paleontologists in academic institutions around the world. My graduate and undergraduate students, and post-doctoral scholars, are given the opportunity to become part of these collaborations. The twelve projects comprising my proposed research program, encompass six long-term objectives designed to address issues around timing of migration and extinction related to Permian climate changes, and in so doing provide a template for all other stratigraphic studies. This is accomplished by investigating regions around the world, specifically western Canada, mid-continent USA, and south China. These areas were once part of the ancient Tethys Sea and the eastern margin of the Panthalassic Ocean (similar to the Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean today). Many projects involve a field component, but will also use archived materials. All projects include laboratory research involving the recovery of conodonts and other fossils from the rock matrix, and include collection of additional geochemical data. The details of timing from the small fossil clocks we discover in the rock can then be used to decipher the history of basins around the world, as well as their potential for energy resources. It allows us to see not just Earth's history, but also our possible future.