EAGER: Microbial Successions in the Aftermath of a Snowball Earth Event

该EAGER奖项为中国南方陡山沱组矿物包裹沥青材料样品的研究项目提供资金，以分析保存完好的微体化石，包括最早的宏观动物生命的胚胎。提议的首席研究员最近开发了提取这种有机材料的实验室技术，以避免先前风化和污染的问题。该区域的岩芯样品将通过与中国同事合作获得，由一名博士后研究员每年在南京地质古生物研究所工作几个月进行实地工作。这些研究可能被视为高风险，高回报的研究，本质上是跨学科的，并努力克服困扰前寒武纪分子化石研究的污染问题。这项研究的目的是区分两个主要的假说解释突然终止的雪球地球情节和起源的新元古代帽碳酸盐。如果成功，这项工作将提高对过去微生物群落和地球化学过程的理解，这些过程发生在遥远的过去极端气候事件期间和之后。这个探索性的项目，从它的研究分子和同位素代理，表明地球的行为？在长时间尺度上的气候系统，将有助于了解过去的极端气候的地质框架。 该项目涉及与中国同事的密切合作，并有助于参与博士后研究员的专业发展。研究结果将向公共媒体和学校以及学术出版物传播。

This EAGER award provides funding to initiate a research project on samples of mineral-occluded bitumen materials from the Doushantuo Formation in southern China to analyze well preserved microfossils that include embryos of the earliest macroscopic animal life. The proposing Principal Investigator has recently developed laboratory techniques for extracting such organic material to avoid problems with prior weathering and contamination. Core samples from the region will be obtained by collaboration with Chinese colleagues with field work done by a post-doctoral fellow spending several months each year in Nanjing with the Nanjing Institute for Geology and Paleontology. The studies, which may be viewed as high risk, high reward research, are cross-disciplinary in nature and strive to overcome contamination issues that have plagued prior studies of Precambrian molecular fossils. The research aims to discriminate between two primary hypotheses for explaining the sudden termination of Snowball Earth episodes and the origins of Neoproterozoic cap carbonates. If successful, the work will improve understanding of past microbial communities and biogeochemical processes that took place during and after extreme climate events in the distant past. This exploratory project, from its studies of molecular and isotopic proxies that indicate the behavior of Earth?s climate system over long time scales, will contribute to the geological framework for understanding climate extremes of the past. The project involves close collaboration with Chinese colleagues and contributes to the professional development of the participating post-doctoral fellow. Research results will be disseminated to public media and schools as well as scholarly publications.