CAREER: Assessing the Connection Between Ecological and Environmental Collapse During the Pliensbachian-Toarcian Carbon-cycle Perturbation in Morocco

人们担心今天海洋生态系统的健康状况正在下降，过去发生的类似事件可以为我们目前的生态系统如何生存提供信息。这样的事件发生在大约1.83亿年前的早侏罗世，当时珊瑚礁在温暖、低氧、酸性海洋时期经历了大规模灭绝。早侏罗世事件在摩洛哥高阿特拉斯山脉有详细的记录，那里的研究正在确定(1)生态系统消失的时间；(2)哪些生物存活了下来（哪些没有），以及(3)哪些环境变化导致了生态系统的崩溃。为了与公众分享这项工作，正在设计一款棋盘游戏来教育玩家侏罗纪珊瑚礁，面对极端环境变化的进化和灭绝。本游戏整合了初中、高中、大学水平的教学模块；它也可以为公众所欣赏，并将以多种语言提供，从而提高本地和国际的科学素养。正在解决的主要研究问题是：(1)早侏罗世生态系统崩溃究竟发生在什么时候？它是跨生态系统类型（即珊瑚礁与底层群落）同步发生的吗？(2)什么杀死机制（如缺氧、酸化）导致了生物崩溃，它们是否与大型火成岩省就位有关？(3)海洋群落恢复的时间和速度是什么？这些问题将通过摩洛哥高级地图集的实地跨学科研究得到解答。定量的古生态学和沉积学调查与一套地球化学数据（例如，温度、火山作用和水氧水平的代用物）相结合，以了解早侏罗世生物崩溃的原因、时间和后果。这种综合的、多学科的综合研究让古生物学家、生态学家和气候科学家了解了使某些生态系统在重大全球灾难中幸存下来的条件。这款棋盘游戏的教育效果是通过在当地学校和大学进行beta测试来评估的，学生和教师都对游戏的乐趣和学习成果进行了自我报告调查。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

There are concerns about the declining health of ocean ecosystems today, and similar events in the past can provide information about how our current ecosystems might survive. One such event occurred during the Early Jurassic about 183 million years ago when reefs experienced major extinctions during periods of warm, low-oxygen, acidic oceans. This Early Jurassic event is recorded in great detail in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains, and research there is establishing (1) when ecosystems disappeared; (2) which organisms survived (and which did not), and (3) what environmental changes led to ecosystem collapse. To share this work with the public, a board game is being designed to educate players about Jurassic reefs, evolution, and extinction in the face of extreme environmental change. This game is integrated into middle school, high school, and college-level educational modules; it can also be enjoyed by the general public and will be made available in multiple languages, thus enhancing science literacy, both locally and internationally.The primary research questions being addressed are: (1) When precisely does ecosystem collapse occur in the Early Jurassic and was it synchronous across ecosystem types (i.e., reefs versus level-bottom communities)? (2) What kill mechanism(s) (e.g., anoxia, acidification) caused biotic collapse and are they linked to large igneous province emplacement? (3) What were the timing and tempo of recovery for marine communities? These issues will be answered through field-based, interdisciplinary research in the Moroccan High Atlas. Quantitative paleoecological and sedimentological surveys are being combined with a suite of geochemical data (e.g., proxies for temperature, volcanism, and water oxygen levels) to understand the causes, timing, and consequences of biotic collapse in the Early Jurassic. This integrated, multi-disciplinary synthesis is informing paleontologists, ecologists, and climate scientists about the conditions that allowed certain ecosystems to survive a major global catastrophe. The educational efficacy of the board game is assessed through beta trials in local schools and universities with self-reported surveys of enjoyment and learning outcomes from both students and teachers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.