Collaborative Research: Integrating tectonics, climate, and mammal diversity

合作研究：整合构造、气候和哺乳动物多样性

• 批准号: 1814029
• 负责人: Ran Feng
• 金额: $ 12.07万
• 依托单位: University of Connecticut
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1814029&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Integrating; tectonics; climate

The researchers seek to understand how movement of tectonic plates, which produced major mountain barriers and influenced regional climate, controlled the evolution and geographic distribution of mammals in western North America. The EarthScope Transportable Array, a network of seismic stations, has produced data that allow an unprecedented view of the Earth's structure in the western United States, providing a unique starting point from which to consider how it came to have the 3-D structure that is imaged by seismic methods. This, combined with a rich published record of structures that record changes in plate tectonics and deformation history over the past 36 Ma, allows us to estimate crustal thickness and topography throughout the western US over this important interval in mammal evolution. The researchers propose to use 3D models to understand the collapse of topography in the western US, which led to marked changes in mammal diversification that coincide with changes in the strain rates recorded in the fault movement record. The research will be accomplished through collaboration of teams that will 1) Improve dating of the sedimentary record that contains the mammalian record, as well as focused sampling of fossils from under-represented areas and time intervals, 2) produce 3D models for lithosphere modification that account for changes in heat flux and boundary conditions, 3) model regional climate that builds on topographic constraints, 4) analyze mammal speciation and diversification and its links over time with topography and climatic gradients, and 5) synthesize all of the results into a 4D model for change through the past 36 Ma. The ultimate goal is to produce a more fundamental understanding of the factors responsible for crustal and topographic changes and how these influence mammal speciation and diversification. The quantitative analysis of crust and mantle dynamics provides an important framework for advancing knowledge in fields linked to the economic geology (mineral belts) of the southwestern US. The research will provide valuable technical training to high school, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral researchers. The collaborative team will develop several outreach products, including an informational video for the general public, materials for museum presentations and exhibits at the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History, the departmental Museum Display at Stony Brook, and materials for talks and presentations to the public.The integrated topography model shows a Nevadaplano of ~4.36 +/- 0.4 km (1-sigma) average elevation in central, eastern, and southern Nevada, western Utah, parts of easternmost California, and central portions of westernmost Arizona at 36 Ma. Our model shows that highlands of the Nevadaplano connected to a continuous mountain chain through southeastern Arizona and into northern Mexico. This topography results from the long history of crustal shortening from Sevier - Laramide orogenies. The topography of this massive range collapsed from 36 Ma to the present, leading to as much as 200% extension, the present-day Basin and Range, and exhumation of metamorphic core complexes along the belt of thickened crust. Distributions of lithospheric body forces continue to drive this collapse today. Differences in gravitational potential energy are known to drive extensional deformation, particularly in regions of extreme topography. Yet the reasons for the timing of the collapse, along with the magnitudes and distributions of deviatoric stresses responsible for the collapse, remain enigmatic. The changing topography associated with extensional collapse dramatically altered the climate and mammal diversity dynamics of the western Cordillera. Our research targets three topics within the Integrated Earth System: (1) The topography, distribution, and 3-D deviatoric stresses responsible for the collapse history, (2) The climatic response to the collapse and generation of climate gradients, and (3) The response of mammal lineages and faunas to changing topographic and climate gradients and removal of topographic barriers. No previous study of climate gradients and their impact on mammal diversity has ever been integrated with quantitative kinematic and dynamic reconstructions of continental deformation. The intellectual merit of this study involves the power of combining these fields, while incorporating formal uncertainties in models at all stages of analysis.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.

研究人员试图了解构造板的运动如何产生主要的山屏障并影响区域气候，该运动如何控制北美西部哺乳动物的进化和地理分布。 Earthscope可运输阵列是一个地震站网络，它产生了数据，允许对美国西部地球结构的前所未有的看法，从而提供了一个独特的起点，可以考虑如何通过地震方法成像的3-D结构。这与在过去36 Ma中的板块构造和变形历史记录的结构的丰富记录相结合，使我们能够在整个美国西部的地壳厚度和地形估计哺乳动物进化的这一重要间隔。研究人员建议使用3D模型来了解美国西部地形的崩溃，这导致哺乳动物多样化的明显变化与故障运动记录中记录的应变率的变化相吻合。将通过团队的合作来完成这项研究。随着时间的流逝，与地形和气候梯度链接，以及5）将所有结果综合为4D模型，以在过去36 Ma上进行更改。最终目标是对负责地壳和地形变化的因素以及这些如何影响哺乳动物物种形成和多样化的因素产生更基本的理解。对地壳和地幔动态的定量分析为推进与西南部经济地质（矿物带）相关的领域的知识提供了重要的框架。这项研究将为高中，本科，研究生和博士后研究人员提供宝贵的技术培训。合作团队将开发多种外展产品，包括密歇根大学自然历史博物馆的博物馆演讲和展览材料的信息视频，斯托尼·布鲁克（Stony Brook）的百科博物馆展览以及向公众演讲的材料。综合地形模型显示，内华达州的尼瓦达帕拉诺（Nevadaplano犹他州，最东部的加利福尼亚部分地区，最西部的亚利桑那州中部位于36 Ma。我们的模型表明，内瓦达普兰诺的高地通过亚利桑那州东南部和墨西哥北部连续的山脉连接。该地形是由塞维尔（Sevier）laramide造成的悠久缩短的悠久历史而产生的。这个巨大范围的地形从36 mA塌陷到现在，导致延伸至200％的延伸，当今的盆地和范围，以及沿增厚地壳腰带的变质核心复合物的挖掘。岩石圈体力的分布今天继续推动这种崩溃。已知重力势能的差异会导致扩展变形，尤其是在极端地形区域。然而，崩溃时机的原因，以及导致崩溃的偏离压力的大小和分布，仍然是神秘的。与扩展崩溃相关的不断变化的地形大大改变了西部科迪勒拉的气候和哺乳动物多样性动力学。我们的研究针对综合地球系统中的三个主题：（1）造成倒塌历史的地形，分布和3-D偏离应力，（2）气候对气候梯度崩溃和产生的气候反应，以及（3）哺乳动物谱系和动物群体对改变地形和气候障碍的改变地形和气候障碍的反应。先前没有对气候梯度及其对哺乳动物多样性的影响的研究与大陆变形的定量运动学和动态重建有关。这项研究的智力优点涉及结合这些领域的能力，同时将正式的不确定性纳入分析的各个阶段。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛影响的评估来评估的审查标准。

项目成果

Poleward amplification, seasonal rainfall and forest heterogeneity in the Miocene of the eastern USA

• DOI: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2023.104073
• 发表时间: 2023-02
• 期刊: Global and Planetary Change
• 影响因子: 3.9
• 作者: T. Reichgelt;A. Baumgartner;R. Feng;D. Willard

Climate as the Great Equalizer of Continental‐Scale Erosion

• DOI: 10.1029/2021gl095008
• 发表时间: 2021-10
• 期刊: Geophysical Research Letters
• 影响因子: 5.2
• 作者: G. Jepson;B. Carrapa;J. Gillespie;R. Feng;P. DeCelles;P. Kapp;C. Tabor;Jiang Zhu

Ecological and hydroclimate responses to strengthening of the Hadley circulation in South America during the Late Miocene cooling

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1810721116
• 发表时间: 2019-05-14
• 期刊: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• 影响因子: 11.1
• 作者: Carrapa, Barbara;Clementz, Mark;Feng, Ran
• 通讯作者: Feng, Ran