EAGER: Microbial Successions in the Aftermath of a Snowball Earth Event

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This EAGER award provides funding to initiate a research project on samples of mineral-occluded bitumen materials from the Doushantuo Formation in southern China to analyze well preserved microfossils that include embryos of the earliest macroscopic animal life. The proposing Principal Investigator has recently developed laboratory techniques for extracting such organic material to avoid problems with prior weathering and contamination. Core samples from the region will be obtained by collaboration with Chinese colleagues with field work done by a post-doctoral fellow spending several months each year in Nanjing with the Nanjing Institute for Geology and Paleontology. The studies, which may be viewed as high risk, high reward research, are cross-disciplinary in nature and strive to overcome contamination issues that have plagued prior studies of Precambrian molecular fossils. The research aims to discriminate between two primary hypotheses for explaining the sudden termination of Snowball Earth episodes and the origins of Neoproterozoic cap carbonates. If successful, the work will improve understanding of past microbial communities and biogeochemical processes that took place during and after extreme climate events in the distant past. This exploratory project, from its studies of molecular and isotopic proxies that indicate the behavior of Earth?s climate system over long time scales, will contribute to the geological framework for understanding climate extremes of the past. The project involves close collaboration with Chinese colleagues and contributes to the professional development of the participating post-doctoral fellow. Research results will be disseminated to public media and schools as well as scholarly publications.