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: 2325048
• 负责人: Christopher Poulsen
• 金额: $ 41.9万
• 依托单位: University of Oregon Eugene
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-10-01 至 2025-01-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2325048&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.

地球与生命科学交集的一个长期问题是气候和构造学在生命的演变中起到哪些作用（如果有的话）？东非裂谷是研究地球过程对哺乳动物进化的影响的最佳场所。在这里，该地区的地质和气候历史，包括人类摇篮的形成，以独特的方式保存在沉积岩中。该团队将调查这些沉积物以及它们所包含的化石，以深入了解过去2500万年来记录人类，私人祖先和非洲哺乳动物的出现的古代气候和栖息地。我们的研究将使用综合场，实验室和建模研究来探索肯尼亚图尔卡纳盆地构造，气候和哺乳动物进化之间的关系。将合并新的和现有的数据，以研究裂谷开发，气候变化和他们的团队之间的联系，该构造模型将在过去的2500万年中重建东非该地区的Rift演变，构造模型将与同样分辨率或更好分辨率的气候蔬菜模型集成。独立的地质，地球化学，古生态学和古生物学数据将用于验证这些模型输出，以区分构造和气候对Turkana生态系统和哺乳动物进化的影响。该项目还将培训几名博士后学者，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。该项目旨在测试有关构造和气候关于哺乳动物和新生代晚期陆地生态系统进化的复杂相互作用的问题的多种假设。该团队设计了一种综合方法，以探索连续的裂谷以及全球和区域氛围在28至500万年前的Turkana盆地素和其他哺乳动物进化中的作用。东非的时间依赖性，运动学和动态构造模型将用于探索整个裂谷系统的演变。构造模型将与耦合到动态植被模型的接地系统模型集成以测试我们的假设。该模型的输出将通过Turkana盆地的新代理数据进行验证，其中包括岩石地层学，辐射测定，群集同位素温度计，植物蜡生物标志物，搪瓷同位素，古生物植物，牙科，牙科微型和效率，启用了独立的气候效果，启用了气候，FAUN，FAAUN，FAAUN，FAANECTONIC，FAANSICONS和STECTONIC，FAANSINCONIC，FAANECTONIC。我们的多学科，多机构的项目包括为下一代科学家的培训机会，包括对三名研究生，四名博士学位和至​​少11名本科生的培训。我们的广播公司影响目标是招募和准备学生从事科学职业，尤其是地球科学中代表性不足的少数群体的学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子的智力优点和更广泛影响的评估来评估的珍贵支持。