| Project of the Month - October 2011
The primary goal of the project is to assess the intensity of climate change and biodiversity response of the Mid Paleozoic in marine and terrestrial sequences. MPBCC is a project within the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) Geoscience in the service of society. The IGCP is a cooperative enterprise of UNESCO and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and has been stimulating comparative studies in the Earth Sciences since 1972.
Website address: http://www.senckenberg.de/IGCP-596
(here you will find information on UNESCOS projects, forthcoming meetings and workshops of IGCP 596, references, logos of the projects, pictures, public outreach projects etc.)
Project type: Large scale integrated collaborative project
Project start date: 01/04/2024
Duration: 5 Years
Total budget: funded by UNESCO / IUGS up to 10.000 US$ each year; additional funding will be given by funding agencies in different countries depending on the number of international and national working groups involved in this project
The Mid-Paleozoic represents a time when significant changes took place in terms of evolutionary development as well as in biochemical cycling and climate changes. Several severe bio-events are evident and continental glaciations are known during the Late Devonian and the Early Carboniferous. Another important step in terms of climate, sedimentology and ecosystem evolution was attributed to the global increase in terrestrial biomass, which enhanced carbon burial with possible global effects on carbon budgets and atmospheric pCO2. Increasing colonization of the land by plants in combination with soil-forming processes and changing runoff led to major changes of sediment input into the marine system. Both, rapid evolution of terrestrial ecosystems and climate change had a pronounced influence on sedimentation and biodiversity not only in the terrestrial but also in the marine realm. These transformations resulted in a diverse series of ecological turnovers and extinction events, together with pronounced geochemical signatures in the marine record, which are characterized by short-term perturbations in the global carbon cycle.
| field work impressions | (photos kindly provided by the project) |
The Mid-Paleozoic conforms to a time interval of dynamic long-term climate change, which was accompanied by substantial variations in biodiversity. Within the framework of this UNESCO project we intend to increase and refine the documentation of biodiversity mainly in tropical realms during Early Devonian-Early Carboniferous times and identify links to climate change. Groups distinctive for different ecosystems, especially indicating terrestrial, neritic and pelagic marine environments, are land plants, phytoplankton, foraminifers, sponges, corals, arthropods, cephalopods, echinoderms, brachiopods, bryozoans, conodonts and fishes. In addition to general diversity patterns of different fossil groups, we will study three distinctive intervals in detail, which should document biodiversity and the intensity of evolutionary-pressure during (1) greenhouse (Early and Middle Devonian), (2) beginning climate change (Early-Middle Frasnian) and (3) icehouse conditions (Late Famennian–Tournaisian). Studies will take place in selected section in different countries and continents.
The rapid rise of land plants during the Middle Devonian was coupled with strongly decreasing atmospheric CO2 values from 4000 ppm to nearly present day values of about 350 ppm during the latest Devonian. This dynamic climate shift was followed by a complete reorganisation of ecosystems with tremendous consequences for marine communities at global scales. The interaction between developments on land, such as the formation of top-soil and its influence on the geochemical composition of marine environments are considered as important factor probably responsible for evolutionary trends in biodiversity. Therefore geochemical analysis of carbon, oxygen and strontium isotopes as well as the total organic content and sulfur of sedimentary rocks will be measured to reconstruct prevailing paleoenvironmental conditions. Additionally, geophysical data related to the magnetic susceptibility and the natural gamma radiation of sediments will be used as auxiliary methods for high resolution correlation of biostratigraphic well-documented units belonging to different bathymetric sequences within the tropical belt (Laurussia, Siberia, peri-Gondwana and N-Gondwana).
Results of this project should show whether climate change (e.g. interaction of CO2 and temperature) from greenhouse conditions during the Early-Middle Devonian to icehouse conditions during the Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous represents a major trigger for variations in biodiversity or if a combination of multiple factors is responsible for such changes.
Related to this study, a network of taxonomic workers will be established, which will help to update the systematics of Mid-Paleozoic terrestrial and marine organisms. These datasets will be made available to the public by using existing e-infrastructures such as the Paleobiology Database (http://paleodb.org/).
The benefit of this project regards scientific as well as social purposes. On the one hand results of the project might help to understand our present day situation and climate change in future by documentation of Mid-Paleozoic climate change and its effect on biodiversity. On the other hand, our novel combination of global earth system sciences and analytical paleobiology will help to integrate and educate young researchers responsible for the preservation of knowledge in future.
Coordinators:
KÖNIGSHOF, Peter – Senckenberg, Forschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Frankfurt, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany; phone: +49 69 97075-1686, fax: +49 69 97075-1120; email: peter.königshof@senckenberg.de
SUTTNER, Thomas J. – Austrian Academy of Sciences (CPSA) c/o University of Graz, Institute of Earth Sciences (Geology and Palaeontology), Heinrichstrasse 26, A-8010 Graz, Austria; phone: +0043-316-380-8735; fax: +0043-316-380-9871; email: thomas.suttner@uni-graz.at
BONCHEVA, Iliana A. – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Geological Institute, Department of Paleontology and Stratigraphy; Acad. G. Bonchev str. bl.24, Sofia 1113, Bulgaria; phone: +359-29792225; fax: +359-2724638; email: boncheva2005@yahoo.com
IZOKH, Nadezhda G. – Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian branch of Russian Academy of Sciences; Acad. Koptyug. Av. 3, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; phone: +7(383)333-24-31, fax: +7-383-333-23-01; email: IzokhNG@ipgg.nsc.ru
TA HOA, Phuong – College of Science VNU 334 Nguyen Trai road, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi, Vietnam; phone: +84(4)38585097, fax: +84(4)48583061; email: tahoaphuong@gmail.com
CHAROENTITIRAT, Thasinee – Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; email: thaicat@hotmail.com
WATERS, Johnny A. – Department of Geology, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC28608, U.S.A.; phone: (828) 262-7820; email: watersja@appstate.edu
KIESSLING, Wolfgang – Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; Invalidenstraße 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany; phone: +49 (0)30 2093 8576, fax: +49 (0)30 2093 8565; email: wolfgang.kiessling@mfn-berlin.de
Countries and institutions which have already agreed to cooperate:
In the meantime more than 60 scientists from 20 countries agreed to co-operate and 12 scientists agreed to act as coordinators in different scientific disciplines such as sedimentology/facies, geochemistry, paleoecology/paleobiodiversity and stratigraphy of different organisms which will provide a prerequisite to run this project successfully.
Countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, Mongolia, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, U.S.A., Vietnam.
Institutions, International Organisations: Universities and academic institutions of current academic participants.
UNESCO International Geoscience Programme (IGCP 580)
National and International Subcommissions on Devonian Stratigraphy
National and International Subcommissions on Carboniferous Stratigraphy
Questions to be addressed are:
