NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Biogeography and community assembly of North American Carboniferous ecosystems

NSF 生物学博士后奖学金：北美石炭纪生态系统的生物地理学和群落组装

• 批准号: 2209043
• 负责人: Benjamin Otoo
• 金额: $ 13.8万
• 依托单位: Otoo, Benjamin K
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-03-01 至 2025-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2209043&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; Biogeography

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. This project will investigate the time in Earth’s history when forests first appeared, and tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) originated and diversified into the ancestors of living land animals. Using the fossil record and approaches including anatomy, geology, and ecology the fellow will analyze the ancient origins of modern land ecosystems, to determine how ecosystems respond to changes in environment and biodiversity. It is important to understand the history of life on Earth up to the present, as this knowledge will inform how to become better stewards of the natural and built environments. The fellow will increase the diversity of paleontology and earth sciences and serve as a role model and mentor for students from underrepresented groups. Public outreach events will further broaden the impact of the project. Tetrapods originated in the Late Devonian approximately 370 million years ago. By 30 million years ago, in the Early Carboniferous, they had expanded beyond the obligately aquatic, fish-like Devonian forms into a great range of body forms, sizes, and both aquatic and terrestrial modes of life, spanning both the lissamphibian and amniote total groups. The increasing diversity of terrestrial tetrapods throughout the Carboniferous and into the Permian has been characterized as a transition from ‘primitive’ food webs dependent on aquatic activity to ‘modern’, wholly land-based communities. However, this hypothesis is based on assumptions of a linear, adaptive process of tetrapod terrestrialization which is increasingly challenged by fossil data, and the continental structure during the Devonian-Carboniferous period. This study will combine anatomical description of fossils, geological and geographic data, and comparative food web modeling to investigate the process and context of tetrapod terrestrialization. The fellow will be trained in the conduct of fieldwork and the use of comparative paleoecological methods. Findings will be shared at scientific conferences, through publication in open-access journals, and with the broader public via community outreach events.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.

该行动资助 2022 财年 NSF 生物学博士后研究奖学金，扩大生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。该奖学金支持研究员的研究和培训计划，该计划将增加生物学领域代表性不足的群体的参与。在地球历史上，当森林首次出现时，四足动物（有肢脊椎动物）起源并多样化为陆地动物的祖先，利用化石记录和解剖学方法，地质学和生态学研究员将分析现代陆地生态系统的远古起源，以确定生态系统如何应对环境和生物多样性的变化。了解迄今为止地球上生命的历史非常重要，因为这些知识将告诉我们如何应对。成为自然和建筑环境的更好管理者。该研究员将增加古生物学和地球科学的多样性，并成为代表性不足群体的学生的榜样和导师，这将进一步扩大该项目的影响力。在后期大约 3.7 亿年前的泥盆纪，到了 3000 万年前的早石炭世，它们已经超越了纯水生的、像鱼一样的泥盆纪形态，发展出了各种各样的身体形态、大小以及水生和陆生生活方式。横跨石炭纪和二叠纪的陆地四足动物的多样性不断增加，被认为是一个过渡时期。从依赖水生活动的“原始”食物网到“现代”、完全以陆地为基础的群落。然而，这一假设是基于四足动物陆地化的线性、适应性过程的假设，而这种过程越来越受到化石数据和大陆结构的挑战。这项研究将结合化石的解剖学描述、地质和地理数据以及比较食物网模型来研究四足动物陆地化的过程和背景。实地考察的进行和比较古生态学方法的使用将在科学会议上、通过在开放获取期刊上发表以及通过社区外展活动与更广泛的公众分享。该奖项反映了国家科学基金会的法定使命，并被认为是值得的。通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来提供支持。