ECOSYSTEM RECOVERY FOLLOWING THE PERMO-TRIASSIC MASS EXTINCTION

二叠纪-三叠纪大规模灭绝后的生态系统恢复

基本信息

批准号：
NE/X012859/1
负责人：
Alexander Dunhill
金额：
$ 10.27万
依托单位：
University of Leeds
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2023
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2023 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FX012859%2F1
关键词：
ECOSYSTEM RECOVERY FOLLOWING PERMO TRIASSIC

项目摘要

The Permo-Triassic mass extinction (PTME; c. 252 Ma) was the most catastrophic biotic event of the Phanerozoic with up to 96% of marine animals going extinct. This event was triggered by massive volcanic eruptions which led to a series of environmental cascades in the oceans, such as rapid and extreme greenhouse warming, ocean anoxia and ocean acidification. The PTME had long lasting effects on the evolution of life with current opinions stating that marine ecosystem recovery took anywhere between 5 to 50 million years. It has also been hypothesised that the PTME caused a permanent ecological regime shift in the world's oceans, marking the end of Palaeozoic benthic ecosystems largely made up of sessile suspension feeders and catalysing the "Mesozoic Marine Revolution", a predator-prey arms race which led to increasing levels of ecological complexity. However, previous attempts to quantify the speed and nature of the recovery interval from the PTME have relied upon indirect measures of ecosystem structure and complexity such as compilations of taxonomic vs functional diversity, qualitative interpretations of ecosystem recovery, and attempts at quantifying changes in life habit and evidence of predation intensity through time. However, to thoroughly test such hypotheses, analyses need to be conducted within a whole ecosystem framework which make use of community ecology methods in order to model ecosystem structural changes via trophic networks (i.e. food webs) through the recovery interval and beyond. This project will explore a novel approach to pushing the frontiers of palaeobiological research via interdisciplinary methods combining recent advances in ecological modelling with palaeontology. Specifically, we will test how marine ecosystems recovered from the PTME and whether this biotic crisis truly represented the beginning of the origins of modern marine ecosystem structure. We will use the rich marine fossil record from South China to model community structure across the PTME and long recovery interval through the Triassic whilst accounting for preservation bias in the fossil record. We will then use the Paleo Foodweb Inference Model to build food webs from ecological traits easily identifiable from the fossil record and then track community structure and function across the PTME and into the recovery interval in the Triassic. This analysis will provide the most precise analysis of how the largest mass extinction in Earth history altered marine ecosystem structure and whether this event heralded the onset of the Mesozoic Marine Revolution and the origins of modern marine ecosystem structure.

二叠纪-三叠纪大规模灭绝（PTME；约252 Ma）是显生宙最灾难性的生物事件，高达96%的海洋动物灭绝。这一事件是由大规模火山喷发引发的，导致海洋中一系列环境连锁反应，例如快速和极端的温室变暖、海洋缺氧和海洋酸化。 PTME 对生命的进化产生了持久的影响，目前的观点认为海洋生态系统的恢复需要 5 到 5000 万年的时间。还有人假设，PTME 引起了世界海洋的永久性生态格局转变，标志着主要由固着悬浮饲养者组成的古生代底栖生态系统的终结，并催化了“中生代海洋革命”，这是一场捕食者与被捕食者的军备竞赛，导致了生态复杂性不断提高。然而，之前量化 PTME 恢复间隔的速度和性质的尝试依赖于生态系统结构和复杂性的间接测量，例如分类与功能多样性的汇编、生态系统恢复的定性解释以及量化生活习惯变化的尝试以及随着时间的推移捕食强度的证据。然而，为了彻底检验这些假设，需要在整个生态系统框架内进行分析，利用群落生态学方法，通过恢复期及之后的营养网络（即食物网）来模拟生态系统结构变化。该项目将探索一种新方法，通过跨学科方法将生态模型与古生物学的最新进展相结合，推动古生物学研究的前沿。具体来说，我们将测试海洋生态系统如何从PTME中恢复，以及这场生物危机是否真正代表了现代海洋生态系统结构起源的开始。我们将利用华南丰富的海洋化石记录来模拟 PTME 的群落结构和三叠纪的长恢复间隔，同时考虑化石记录中的保存偏差。然后，我们将使用古食物网推理模型，根据可从化石记录中轻松识别的生态特征来构建食物网，然后跟踪整个 PTME 和三叠纪恢复期的群落结构和功能。这项分析将为地球历史上最大规模的物种灭绝如何改变海洋生态系统结构以及该事件是否预示着中生代海洋革命的开始和现代海洋生态系统结构的起源提供最精确的分析。