Collaborative Research: Comparative Taphonomy and Time-Averaging of Mollusk-Echinoid Assemblages using High-Performance Radiocarbon Dating System

合作研究：使用高性能放射性碳测年系统对软体动物-海胆组合进行比较埋藏学和时间平均

• 批准号: 2127644
• 负责人: Darrell Kaufman
• 金额: $ 16.61万
• 依托单位: Northern Arizona University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2127644&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Comparative; Taphonomy; Time

The goal of this project is to assess what happens after death with remains of shelly animals (mollusks and sea urchins) that dominate many seafloors today and are widespread in the marine fossil record. Do those shells last for millennia or perish quickly? Because shells of mollusks and tests of sea urchins are abundant in many marine habitats, how fast or slow they perish may affect the carbon cycle, affect sediments in marine habitats, influence how sedimentary rocks form, and impact the resolution and quality of the fossil record. Moreover, there is tentative evidence that mollusks and sea urchins may differ dramatically in shell durability. Mollusk shells probably persist for centuries around the seafloor, whereas sea urchin tests only survive months or possibly years. This project will compare the post-mortem fate of mollusk shells and sea urchin tests and associated predictions across various types of marine habitats. By combining field surveys of live and dead animals and radiocarbon dating of dead remains, the project will quantify the survival time of mollusk and echinoid remains and use field data to test predictions based on expected shell destruction rates. The results will advance our understanding of marine sedimentation processes, formation of the sedimentary rock and fossil records, possible biases due to variable preservation of different animal groups, and the temporal resolution of fossil samples. The project will provide a direct opportunity for testing a new advanced strategy of radiocarbon dating with a real potential to advance our general ability to date fossil samples quickly and efficiently. The project will also serve as a platform for training a new generation of scientists and broadening participation of groups underrepresented in biology and geology. In addition, educational movies using novel immersive digital technology will be used to convey the excitement of conducting scientific research in marine settings. The project will engender international partnerships with the Commonwealth of Bahamas and provide collaborative bridges connecting students and researchers from public universities in Arizona and Florida.This project aims to improve our understanding fossilization processes that lead to preservation or destruction of benthic mollusks and echinoids, which are both important components of the marine fossil record. The main goal is to assess the hypothesis that these two groups of animals differ in skeletal durability and fossilization potential. By integrating live-dead field surveys and new generation radiocarbon instrumentation, we will test three predictions that stem from this hypothesis: (1) time-averaging, variation in age of specimens, is orders of magnitude higher for mollusks compared to echinoids; (2) live-dead specimen ratios are orders of magnitude lower for mollusks than for echinoids; and (3) specimen-fragment ratio is significantly higher for mollusks than for echinoids. These predictions will be tested using surface and subsurface samples from present-day seafloors around Florida and the Bahamas. The project will target diverse carbonate and siliciclastic settings to assess if the observed patterns are generalizable across different habitat types. The project will produce 45 live-dead surveys of mollusks and echinoids at 15 sampling sites across five localities. These field data will be augmented by radiocarbon dating of 1000 individual specimens of mollusks and echinoids. This extraordinarily large number of radiocarbon ages is now feasible using the new NSF-supported MICADAS accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) at Northern Arizona University (NAU) . Quantifying taphonomic differences between two major groups of marine invertebrates will advance our understanding of sedimentological processes related to formation of biogenic sedimentary rocks, the role of shell-producing organisms as carbon sinks or carbon sources, and the quality and temporal resolution of paleontological data. The proposed approach is designed as a broadly applicable research strategy transferrable to study systems. In terms of broader impacts activities, the project will advance STEM careers of one postdoctoral researcher, one graduate student, and ~12 undergraduate students, with specific focus on recruitment and career development of minority STEM students. The student training will encompass comprehensive research skills and will be vertically integrated to benefit mentoring skills of early career scientists. Outreach and education materials using 360° immersive video technology will include 3D-augmented reality movies of seafloor exploration by SCUBA (freely accessible as immersive 3D YouTube movies). The partnership between UF and NAU will facilitate networking of minority students in Florida and Arizona, and the international field work in partnership with the Gerace Research Centre will engage Bahamian students.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.

该项目的目的是评估当今占主导地下许多海底的雪莉动物（软体动物和海胆）死后发生的事情，并在海洋化石记录中占有广泛。这些贝壳会持续数千年或迅速灭亡吗？由于软体动物的贝壳和海胆的测试在许多海洋栖息地中都很丰富，所以它们灭亡的速度或缓慢可能影响碳循环，影响海洋栖息地中的沉积物，影响沉积岩的形成方式，并影响化石记录的分辨率和质量。此外，有暂定的证据表明，软体动物和海胆在壳耐用性方面可能会有不同的不同。软体动物的贝壳可能持续了几个世纪，而海胆测试仅存活几个月或可能的几年。该项目将比较软体动物壳和海胆测试的事后命运以及各种海洋栖息地的相关预测。通过结合活动物和死动物的现场调查以及死者遗体的放射性碳年代测定，该项目将量化软体动物和棘突残留物的生存时间，并使用现场数据来基于预期的壳壳破坏率来测试预测。结果将提高我们对海洋沉积过程的理解，沉积岩石和化石记录的形成，由于不同动物群体的可变保留以及化石样品的临时分辨而导致的偏见。项目将为测试新的放射性碳约会高级策略提供直接机会，具有真正有可能快速有效地约会化石样品的一般能力的真正潜力。该项目还将成为培训新一代科学家的平台，并扩大在生物学和地质学中代表性不足的群体的参与。此外，使用新颖的沉浸式数字技术的教育电影将用于传达在海洋环境中进行科学研究的兴奋。该项目将与巴哈马联邦建立国际合作伙伴关系，并提供与亚利桑那州和佛罗里达公立大学的学生和研究人员联系的合作桥梁。该项目旨在改善我们的理解集中流程，从而导致底栖动物和棘手的遗迹，这些过程是对底栖动物和echinoin的保存或破坏，这些过程都是重要的成分，这些组合都是海上质量的重要组成部分。主要目标是评估这两组动物在骨骼耐用性和聚焦潜力方面不同的假设。通过整合死亡的现场调查和新一代放射性碳仪器，我们将测试三个预测，这些预测来自该假设：（1）平均时间，样品年龄的变化，小软体动物的数量级高于类螺旋藻。 （2）软体动物的生命标本比率比棘突低的数量级低； （3）软体动物的试样碎片比显着高于棘突。这些预测将使用佛罗里达州和巴哈马附近当今海底的表面和地下样品进行测试。该项目将针对潜水员的碳酸盐和硅化环境，以评估观察到的模式是否可以在不同的栖息地类型中推广。该项目将在五个地区的15个采样地点对软体动物和棘突的现场死刑调查。这些野外数据将通过1000个单独的软体动物和棘突的放射性碳年代增强。现在，使用新的NSF支持的MICADAS ACCELERATOR质谱仪（AMS）（NAU），这种非常大的放射性碳年龄是可行的。量化两个主要的海洋无脊椎动物之间的静齿差异将提高我们对与生物沉积岩石形成相关的沉积过程的理解，即产生壳的生物作为碳汇或碳源的作用以及古生物学数据的质量和临时分辨率。所提出的方法被设计为已转移到研究系统的广泛适用的研究策略。在更广泛的影响活动方面，该项目将推进一名博士后研究员，一名研究生和约12名本科生的STEM职业，并特别关注少数族裔STEM学生的招聘和职业发展。学生培训将涵盖全面的研究技能，并将实际整合以使早期职业科学家的指导技能受益。使用360°沉浸式视频技术的宣传和教育材料将包括Scuba的3D启动现实电影（作为沉浸式3D YouTube电影）。 UF和NAU之间的伙伴关系将支持佛罗里达和亚利桑那州少数族裔学生的网络，与Gerace Research Center合作的国际现场工作将吸引巴哈马学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是通过评估基金会的知识分子和更广泛的影响来审查Criteria的诚实的支持。