Collaborative Research: Life in a Volcanic Landscape: Early Jurassic Paleoenvironments and Paleobotany

智力优势：虽然南极半岛地区有植物群化石，但南极大陆侏罗纪植物的记录很少，可能是由于冈瓦纳大陆的分裂和费拉尔大火成岩省的就位相关的构造和岩浆活动。PI建议检查早侏罗世植物群和古环境在南部维多利亚土地，火山碎屑岩的莫森组包含沉积在淡水湖泊环境中的含硫泥岩和硅质岩沉积夹层。他们将收集植物巨化石，palynomorphs，木炭化和石化木材，以及详细的地层学和沉积学约束的地球化学数据，以提供有关此时植物群组成，沉积环境和生长环境的基线数据。这些数据将有助于了解南极洲火山活动增加期间的植物生命和古环境，并将提供植物信息，可以与冈瓦纳其他地方更知名的植物区系进行比较。费拉尔群中高纬度陆地植被的存在将使PI能够测试侏罗纪快速温室效应变暖的理论，这种情况类似于现代世界下一个世纪的预测。更广泛的影响：该提案将扩大成功的教育和人类发展活动，包括：推广，教学和指导妇女和代表性不足的学生在古生物学;指导研究生和博士后学者;继续支持通过扩大你的视野计划和Si！在恩波里亚州立大学的科学和数学研究所，KU发现技术三人组计划和KU自然历史博物馆。将通过在多个媒体场所广泛传播出版物和专题介绍，以及通过提供存档的数字数据和样本数据，加强与公众的沟通。

Intellectual Merit: Although fossil floras are known from the Antarctic Peninsula region, the record of Jurassic plant life in continental Antarctica is sparse, possibly due to tectonic and magmatic activity associated with the breakup of Gondwana and the emplacement of the Ferrar Large Igneous Province. The PIs propose to examine Early Jurassic floras and paleoenvironments in southern Victoria Land, where pyroclastic rocks of the Mawson Formation contain sedimentary interbeds of fossiliferous mudstones and cherts deposited in a freshwater lake environment. They will collect plant megafossils, palynomorphs, charcoalified and petrified wood, and geochemical data constrained by detailed stratigraphy and sedimentology to provide baseline data on the composition of the floras at this time, their depositional environments, and the environment of growth. These data will contribute to understanding plant life and paleoenvironments in Antarctica during a time of increasing volcanism and will provide floral information that can be compared to other, better-known floras elsewhere in Gondwana. The presence of this high-latitude terrestrial vegetation in the Ferrar Group will allow the PIs to test the theory of rapid greenhouse warming in the Jurassic, a situation similar to that predicted for the next century in the modern world. Broader impacts: This proposal will expand on successful education and human development activities including: outreach, teaching, and mentoring of women and under-represented students in paleobiology; mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral scholars; continuing support for workshops for middle school girls in science via the Expanding Your Horizons Program and Si! Se Puede Hacer Ciencias y Matematicas at Emporia State University, the KU Discover Technology TRIO Program, and the KU Natural History Museum. Communication to the public will be enhanced through widely disseminated publications and presentations in multiple media venues, as well as through the availability of archived digital and specimen data.