U.S.-China Cooperative Research: Isotopic Evidence for Late Cenozoic Climate and Ecosystem Changes in China

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

0204923 Wang This is a 36 month project submitted by Dr. Yang Wang, Florida State University with Professor DENG Tao, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, CAS, China, to study isotopic evidence for late Cenozoic climate and ecosystem changes in China. They propose to collect isotopic evidence of the expansion of C4 plants in China, and to see whether this expansion corresponds to the late Miocene C4 plant expansion noted in America, Africa, Pakistan and Nepal. This project will advance our knowledge of the timing and extent of the global C4 grassland expansion in the late Cenozoic. The long-term climate data collected in the course of this project can fill a data gap for the area adjacent to the Tibetan plateau. A U.S. graduate student and undergraduate student will benefit considerably from collaborating with the Chinese scientists and from the experience of working on this research in China. The NSF and the Chinese Academy of Sciences jointly support this project.