Collaborative Research: RUI: Exploring early metazoan reef evolution through a multi-scale approach

合作研究：RUI：通过多尺度方法探索早期后生动物礁演化

• 批准号: 2233726
• 负责人: Akshay Mehra
• 金额: $ 39.07万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2025-09-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2233726&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; RUI; Exploring; early

Shallow water reefs have been called "cradles of evolution." By studying the remains of ancient reefs, scientists can gain critical insights into the ecological and evolutionary impact of Earth's earliest animals and our planet's transition from a world dominated by microbes to the one we know today. Here, the researchers propose a multidisciplinary and multiscale survey of the Little Dal reefs in northwestern Canada, which formed nearly one billion years ago and are home to the earliest purported remains of sponges on our planet. In this study, the team will utilize various methods—from drone-derived models of outcrops to 3D reconstructions of the sponge fossils to isotopic analyses—to improve our understanding of the inhabitants (e.g., were there truly sponges on Earth a billion years ago?) and ecology (e.g., who or what built the reefs?) of the Little Dal reefs. This work will involve training undergraduate and graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow within a framework that encourages a collaborative, interdisciplinary, inclusive, and international scientific approach. Additionally, the researchers propose to mentor a student from the First Nations Sahtu ́/Dene communities of Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, and Fort Good Hope and engage with these communities throughout the project. Recently, scientists have posited that vermiform microstructures (VERM), found in the Tonian Little Dal Group of northwestern Canada, represent the remains of the oldest poriferan-grade organism in the rock record. Any claim of metazoan reef inhabitation (or construction) during the Proterozoic requires careful consideration and evaluation using a multidisciplinary approach. Here, the researchers propose to explore the ecology and morphology of the Little Dal reef system via a multiscale field and analytical study. They aim to 1) determine whether VERM are unambiguously the remains of a sponge-grade organism and therefore representative of the earliest metazoan reef inhabitants, and 2) quantify the micro- to macro-scale morphologies of the Little Dal reef system, including characteristics such as surface roughness, ecological zonation, and the abundance of constituent reef components. Any assignment of biological affinity for putative Neoproterozoic sponge remains will have broad implications for our understanding of the tempo and mode of metazoan evolution. Additionally, their findings will enable quantitative comparisons between fossil reefs throughout the geological record. Such comparisons will help chart the timing and structural nature of the transition from purely microbial reefs of the earlier Proterozoic to metazoan framework reefs of the Phanerozoic.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.

浅水礁被称为“进化摇篮”。通过研究古代礁的其余部分，科学家可以对地球最早动物的生态和进化影响获得关键的见解，以及我们星球从以微生物为主的世界过渡到我们今天所知道的。在这里，研究人员提出了对加拿大西北部小达尔礁石的多学科和多尺度调查，该调查构成了近十亿年前，并且是我们地球上赞助商的最早遗骸的所在地。在这项研究中，团队将利用各种方法（从无人机衍生的露头模型到赞助商化石的3D重建，再到同位素分析）来提高我们对感染的理解（例如，地球上有十亿年前的赞助商吗？这项工作将涉及培训本科生和研究生，以及一个框架内的博士后研究员，该框架鼓励协作，跨学科，包容和国际科学方法。此外，研究人员建议指导来自辛普森堡，诺曼·威尔斯和良好希望堡的原住民Sahtu ́/Dene社区的学生，并在整个项目中与这些社区互动。最近，科学家提出，在加拿大西北部的Tonian Little Dal Group中发现的Vermiform微观结构（VERM）代表了摇滚记录中最古老的Poriferan级组织的其余部分。在propererokoic期间，任何对后生礁影响（或建筑）的主张都需要使用多学科方法仔细考虑和评估。在这里，研究人员建议通过多尺度领域和分析研究探索小达尔礁系统的生态和形态。他们的目的是1）确定赞助商级有机体是否明确确定，因此代表了最早的后生珊瑚礁居民，以及2）量化小达尔礁系统的微观到漫差的形态，包括表面粗糙度，生态区域，生态区和构造组合的诸如诸如表面粗糙度，生态区和构成礁的特征。生物学亲和力对假定的新元古代赞助商残留物的任何分配都将对我们对后生动物进化的速度和模式的理解产生广泛的影响。此外，他们的发现将在整个地质记录中进行定量比较。这种比较将有助于绘制从早期的Proterozoic的纯微生物礁到Phanerozoic的后生框架礁的过渡的时机和结构性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的智力功能和广泛的影响来评估Criteria的智力功能和广泛影响。