SGER: Testing Chemostratigraphic Correlation in Terrestrial Sediments: Hell Creek Formation, Northeastern Montana

摘要许多对环境敏感的脊椎动物谱系(阿奇博尔德和布莱恩特1990)的存活掩盖了K/T边界事件假设的严重性。测试K/T边界灭绝和存活的替代假设，需要更详细地了解环境变化和火流星撞击之前的生物反应。为了发展这一背景，我们需要一幅关于最新白垩纪动植物和物理环境变化的综合图景。由于化石植物群和动物群保存在露头带内不同地点的不同沉积环境中，因此这种整合尚不可能。为了统一这些记录，需要一种地区间详细对比的方法。我建议建立蒙大拿州东北部地狱溪组(主要是最新的马斯特里赫特)化石地点的碳同位素化学地层学对比框架。拟议的工作将检验以下假设，这些假设对开发化石地层框架至关重要：o地狱溪地层中陆地植物有机碳碳同位素特征的长期变化超过随机变化和空间平均植物生命效应的预期。o长期碳同位素曲线的特征在不同的地点被识别，并可以作为地层连接点，在地狱溪形成层内进行对比。我将通过检验第一个假设来检验第一个假设超过随机变化和植物生命效应预期的数量变化曲线(Arens等人，2000)。然后，我将通过在各个地点之间的关联来检验第二个假设，和海洋记录，使用参考曲线的特征。如果成功，这种方法可能会被广泛应用于泥盆纪之前的岩石上，当时维管植物在陆地上定居。它将使来自不同地区的化石收集得到更精确的整合，为陆地古生态学家带来一系列新的问题。

AbstractThe survival of many environ- mentally sensitive vertebrate lineages (Archibald and Bryant 1990) belies the hypothesized severity of the K/T boundary event. Testing alternative hypotheses of extinction and survival across the K/T boundary requires a more detailed understanding of environmental change and biotic response preceding the bolide impact. To develop this context, we need an integrated picture of change in the flora, fauna and physical environment in the latest Cretaceous. Such an integration has not yet been possible because fossil floras and faunas are preserved in different depositional environments at different localities within an outcrop belt. To unite these records, a method for detailed correlation among localities is needed.I propose to develop the framework for carbon isotope chemostratigraphic correlation of fossil localities within the Hell Creek Formation (mostly latest Maastrichtian) in northeastern Montana.The proposed work will test the following hypotheses essential to the development of thechemostratigraphic framework:o Secular variation in the carbon isotope signature of land plant organic carbon in the Hell CreekFormation exceeds that expected by random variation and spatially averaged plant vital effects.o Features of the secular carbon isotope curve are recognized at different localities and can act as stratigraphic tie points to correlate within the Hell Creek Formation.I will test the first hypothesis by examining the curve for quantitative variation that exceeds that expected by random variation and plant vital effects (Arens et al.2000).I will then test the second hypothesis by correlating among individual localities, and to the marine record,using features of the reference curve. If successful, this approach could be widely applied in rocks younger than the Devonian, when vascular plants colonized land. It will allow fossil collections from various localities to be more precisely integrated, opening a new spectrum of questions to terrestrial paleoecologists.