CAREER:Continental Paleoenvironmental Responses to Carbon Cycle Perturbations During the mid-Cretaceous Greenhouse

尽管白垩纪因当时种类繁多的恐龙动物群而广为人知，但对想象、博物馆和流行文化中的生物来说，白垩纪的重要性不止于此。白垩纪的气候变化可能是碳循环多次中断的结果，可能是火山作用造成的。碳循环控制着气候变化。过去的碳循环变化导致了重大的气候变化、环境变化和物种灭绝。通过了解古代陆地碳循环的扰动，我们可以了解碳循环持续中断的后果。该项目将确定白垩纪碳循环的中断是否导致陆地温度和降水的变化。为了实现这些科学目标，资金将用于支持社区大学、本科生、研究生和博士后学生，以及创建教育实验室活动。作为职业奖项，PI将与其他大学发展合作，加强她的教育活动，并将这些与强大的专业发展研究计划相结合，为未来的研究提供坚实的基础。该项目跨越阿普提亚晚期至阿尔卑斯早期(约1.15亿至1.1亿年前)，特别针对来自4个地区(犹他州、德克萨斯州、西班牙和中国)与海洋缺氧事件1b有关的碳同位素短途旅行。该项目将产生多种气候指标，如：1)块状同位素古测温；2)主要元素地球化学，以量化风化强度和古降水；以及3)碳同位素数据，以估计二氧化碳。这些数据将被综合起来，以帮助识别大陆环境中白垩纪碳循环扰动期间气候变化的全部触发因素、反馈和反应。

While widely known for the diverse dinosaur faunas of the time, the Cretaceous Period is important for more than just the creatures that populate the imagination, museums, and popular culture. Cretaceous climate changes may be the result of numerous disruptions to the carbon cycle, likely due to volcanism. The carbon cycle controls climate change. Past carbon cycle changes resulted in major climate shifts, environmental change, and extinction. By understanding ancient terrestrial carbon cycle perturbations, we can understand the consequences to ongoing disruptions to the carbon cycle. This project will determine if the Cretaceous carbon cycle disruptions resulted in temperature and precipitation changes on land. To achieve these scientific goals, funds will go toward supporting community college, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students as well as creating educational lab activities. As a Career award, the PI will develop collaborations with other universities, enhance her education activities and integrate these with a strong research program for professional development that will provide a solid base for future research.This project spans the late Aptian to early Albian (approximately 115 to 110 million year ago), and specifically targets carbon isotope excursions associated with ocean anoxic event 1b from 4 localities (Utah, Texas, Spain, and China). The project will generate multiple climate proxies such as: 1) clumped isotope paleothermometry; 2) major element geochemistry to quantify weathering intensity and paleoprecipitation; and 3) carbon isotope data to estimate pCO2. This data will be synthesized to help identify the full range of climate change triggers, feedbacks, and responses during Cretaceous carbon cycle perturbations in continental environments.