| Project Detail |
I will use this fellowship to study the Global environmental changes And recovery of primary producers over Mesozoic mass extinctions EventS: a molecular fossil approach (GAMES). The Mesozoic Era (~250 to 66 million years ago), englobe the two recent mass extinctions events in Earth history. The End-Triassic mass Extinction (ETE, dated ~203 million years ago) and the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction (K-Pg, dated ~66 million years ago). These are unique events in the history of live in our planet, with different preconditions, drivers, and outcomes, and the ecological responses to each one has been unique as well. In fact, determining the nature of associated environmental changes and biotic recovery, is critical to understand the cause and effect of these both events. But in addition, studying and comparing different ‘key’ ancient events, will be relevant to understand on future biological disruptions and recoveries result of the current climatic change. The cause of mass extinctions has been a long-standing problem in geology. At present, is broadly accepted that the primary driver on the ETE mass extinction event, was a large magmatic activity (CAMP: Central Atlantic Magmatic Province) associated with the breakup of Pangea. While in the case of the K-Pg mass extinction event, it was a consequence of a meteorite impact in the Gulf of Mexico (Chicxulub structure). These both catastrophic events caused short and long-term paleoenvironmental changes worldwide, including the input of CO2 into the atmosphere-ocean system analogous to current anthropogenic CO2 input. After decades of research, one of the most critical lines of inquiry is to understand the short- to long-term effects of these extinctions events on the global environmental system, including the re-establishment of pre- environmental conditions and marine biological productivity |
