Controls on carbonate preservation: implications for the skeletal record and the carbon cycle

碳酸盐岩是古生物信息的主要来源，也是碳从大气-海洋向岩石圈转移的主要途径。因此，控制其保存和保真度的过程（即埋藏学）对于解释化石记录和碳循环至关重要。我的研究量化了埋藏过程和潜在的保护偏见，范围从单个环境到跨纬度，重点是沿海环境作为全球元素交换和人为影响的主要场所。在过去的15年里，从热带、温带和现在的极地收集了样本和数据，为这些纬度比较奠定了基础。作为拟议研究的一部分，来自关键北极环境（快速环境变化和冰冲刷的地点）的初步死亡组合将扩大并补充实验。 此外，还将通过VENUS海底观测系统获得时间序列实验数据，以便更密切地跟踪埋藏过程的性质和偶发性。 沿着纬度或其他环境梯度的兆带，对我们如何解释生物多样性的变化，例如在过去的气候变化期间，具有重要意义，以期预测生物对未来变化的反应。 它也是组装一个全球模型的碳酸盐埋藏在大陆架环境，目前约束不佳，但估计控制总碳酸盐埋藏，碳循环的主要碳汇的一半。

Skeletal carbonate is our primary source of paleo-biological information, and the primary means by which carbon is transferred from the atmosphere-ocean to the lithosphere. As such, processes which control its preservation and fidelity (i.e. taphonomy) are of primary importance to interpreting the fossil record and the carbon cycle. My research quantifies taphonomic processes and potential preservation biases at scales ranging from within individual environments to across latitudes, with a focus on coastal settings as the main locus of global elemental exchange and anthropogenic impact. Over the past 15 years samples and data from tropical, temperate, and now polar locations have been collected to form the foundation for these latitudinal comparisons. As part of the proposed research, preliminary death assemblages from the key Arctic setting (site of rapid environmental change and ice-scouring) will be expanded and complimented with experiments.  Also, time-series experimental data will be obtained through the VENUS sub-sea observatory system in order to more closely track the nature and episodicity of taphonomic processes.  Megabias along latitudes or other environmental gradients, has significant implications for how we interpret changes in biodiversity, for example during past climate changes, with a view of forecasting biotic response to future changes.  It also is key to assembling a global model of carbonate burial in shelf environments, currently poorly constrained but estimated to control half of the total carbonate burial, the main carbon sink of the carbon cycle.