DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Biological Responses to Climate Change: Physiological and Community-level Responses to the Miocene Climate Optimum (Early Miocene Astoria Formation, Oregon)

生物对气候变化响应的过程和驱动因素了解甚少，特别是在沿海海洋，尽管有充分的文献证明生物对环境变化作出反应。确定生物如何反应，为什么反应，以及它们对哪些环境压力源作出反应，对于理解未来全球变暖对现代生物群的影响，为保护工作提供信息，以及维持经济上重要的渔业是不可或缺的。本研究探讨了温度、生产力和其他环境因素对海洋底栖生物分布、丰度和生理健康的影响，并将直接测试生理极限在确定群落组成中的作用。这项研究将使用早中新世（~ 2000万- 1800万年前）的化石记录来评估生物对有充分记录的~4摄氏度全球变暖的反应。底栖生物群落的变化将通过跟踪物种的相对丰度来评估，双壳类动物健康的变化将通过壳生长速率的变化来跟踪。来自软体动物和有孔虫壳的地球化学代理将用于重建区域环境变化，并将允许确定气候的哪些组成部分对生物变化负有最大责任。由于这项研究利用了化石记录，因此可以在比现代生态学更长的时间尺度上评估气候变化的影响，而且不会混淆污染、富营养化或捕捞等人为因素。本科生将参与现场和实验室的组成部分，并有独立研究的选择。将生成一个带有“虚拟”成分的实地考察指南，让中学生到大学生了解气候科学的古生物学方法。芝加哥大学生物科学推广项目为向低收入、少数族裔为主的学校传播科学研究提供了进一步的途径。

The processes and drivers of biotic responses to climate changes are poorly understood, especially in coastal oceans, even though it is well documented that organisms respond to environmental change. Identifying how organisms respond, why they respond, and to which environmental stressor(s) they are responding is integral to understanding the effects of future global warming on the modern biota, informing conservation efforts, and sustaining economically important fisheries. This study examines the role of temperature, productivity, and other environmental factors in the distribution, abundance, and physiological health of marine benthic organisms, and will directly test the role of physiological limits in determining community composition. This study will use a fossil record from the Early Miocene (~20-18 million-years-ago) to evaluate biotic responses to a well-documented global warming of ~4 degrees C. Benthic community change will be evaluated by tracking the relative abundance of species and changes in bivalve health will be tracked via changes in shell growth rates. Geochemical proxies, derived from molluscan and foraminiferal shells, will be used to reconstruct regional environmental changes and will allow determination of which components of climate are most responsible for the biological changes. Because this study utilizes a fossil record, the effects of climate change can be assessed over longer time scales than within modern ecology and without confounding anthropogenic factors such as pollution, eutrophication, or fishing. Undergraduate students will participate in field and laboratory components, with the option of independent research. A field trip guide with a "virtual" component will be generated to expose middle school through college students to paleobiological approaches to climate sciences. The University of Chicago biosciences outreach program provides a further avenue to disseminate scientific research to low-income, minority-dominated schools.