Collaborative Research: The influence of climate and tectonics on Miocene ecosystems and faunal evolution in the East African Rift, Kenya

合作研究：气候和构造对肯尼亚东非裂谷中新世生态系统和动物群进化的影响

• 批准号: 2020488
• 负责人: Christopher Poulsen
• 金额: $ 41.9万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-01-01 至 2023-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2020488&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; influence; climate; tectonics

A longstanding question at the intersection of Earth and Life sciences is what roles, if any, do climate and tectonics play in the evolution of life? The East African Rift is among the best places to study the influences of Earth processes on the evolution of mammals. Here the region’s geologic and climate histories, including the formation of the rift system that is the cradle of humankind, are preserved in sedimentary rocks in a unique way. The team will investigate these sediments, and the fossils they contain, to gain insight into ancient climate and habitats that record the emergence of humans, their primate ancestors, and African mammals over the last 25 million years. Our research will explore relationships between tectonics, climate, and mammal evolution in the Turkana Basin, Kenya using integrated field, laboratory, and modeling studies. New and existing data will be combined to study the links between rift development, climate change, and their respective roles in vegetation and mammal evolution. The team will produce a tectonic model that reconstructs rift evolution in this region of East Africa for the past 25 million years, and the tectonic model will be integrated with climate-vegetation models of equal or better resolution. Independent geological, geochemical, paleoecological, and paleontological data will be used to validate these model outputs to distinguish the influences of tectonics and climate on the evolution of Turkana ecosystems and mammals. The project will also train several postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students, and provide them with the opportunity to conduct field work in Kenya. This project seeks to test multiple hypotheses centered on questions regarding the complex interplay of tectonics and climate on the evolution of mammals and late Cenozoic terrestrial ecosystems. The team have designed an integrated approach to explore the roles of continental rifting and global and regional climate on the evolution of primates and other mammals in the Turkana Basin from 28 to 5 million year ago. A time-dependent, kinematic and dynamic tectonic model for East Africa will be used to explore evolution of the entire Rift System. The tectonic model will be integrated with an Earth system model coupled to a dynamic vegetation model to test our hypotheses. The model outputs will be validated with new proxy data from the Turkana Basin that includes lithostratigraphy, radiometric dating, clumped isotope thermometry, plant wax biomarkers, enamel isotopes, paleobotany, dental microwear, and ecometrics, that taken together, enable independent reconstruction of the climate, tectonic, and faunal evolution in the region. Our multidisciplinary, multi-institutional project includes training opportunities for the next generation of scientists, including training of three graduate students, four postdocs, and at least 11 undergraduates. Our broader impacts objectives are to recruit and prepare students for careers in science, especially students from underrepresented minorities in the Earth Sciences.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.

地球与生命科学交叉领域的一个长期存在的问题是，气候和构造在生命进化中发挥什么作用（如果有）？东非裂谷是研究地球过程对哺乳动物进化影响的最佳地点之一。该地区的地质和气候历史，包括人类摇篮的裂谷系统的形成，都以独特的方式保存在沉积岩中，该团队将研究这些沉积物及其所含的化石，以获得深入的了解。我们的研究将利用综合现场和实验室，探索肯尼亚图尔卡纳盆地的构造、气候和哺乳动物进化之间的关系，了解记录了过去 2500 万年人类、其灵长类祖先和非洲哺乳动物出现的古代气候和栖息地。和建模研究。该团队将结合新的和现有的数据来研究裂谷发育、气候变化及其各自在植被和哺乳动物进化中的作用之间的联系。非洲过去 2500 万年的数据，构造模型将与具有相同或更好分辨率的气候植被模型相结合，将使用独立的地质、地球化学、古生态和古生物学数据来验证这些模型的输出，以区分构造的影响。该项目还将培训数名博士后学者、研究生和本科生，并为他们提供在肯尼亚进行实地工作的机会。该团队设计了一种综合方法来探索大陆裂谷和全球和区域气候对灵长类动物和其他动物进化的作用。 28 至 500 万年前图尔卡纳盆地的哺乳动物将使用东非的时间依赖性、运动学和动态构造模型来探索整个裂谷系统的演化。构造模型将与地球系统模型相结合，并与动态植被模型相结合，以测试我们的假设。该模型的输出将使用来自图尔卡纳盆地的新代理数据进行验证，其中包括岩石地层学、辐射测年、丛集同位素测温、植物蜡生物标记物、牙釉质同位素、古植物学、牙齿微磨损和生态计量学相结合，能够独立重建该地区的气候、构造和动物进化。多学科、多机构项目包括为下一代科学家提供培训机会，包括培训三名研究生、四名博士后和至少 11 名本科生。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。