NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology: Biogeography and community assembly of North American Carboniferous ecosystems

Otoo, Benjamin K, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2022, Broadening Participation of Groups Underrepresented in Biology. The Fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow that will increase the participation of groups underrepresented in biology. This project will investigate the time in Earth’s history when forests first appeared, and tetrapods (limbed vertebrates) originated and diversified into the ancestors of living land animals. Using the fossil record and approaches including anatomy, geology, and ecology the fellow will analyze the ancient origins of modern land ecosystems, to determine how ecosystems respond to changes in environment and biodiversity. It is important to understand the history of life on Earth up to the present, as this knowledge will inform how to become better stewards of the natural and built environments. The fellow will increase the diversity of paleontology and earth sciences and serve as a role model and mentor for students from underrepresented groups. Public outreach events will further broaden the impact of the project. Tetrapods originated in the Late Devonian approximately 370 million years ago. By 30 million years ago, in the Early Carboniferous, they had expanded beyond the obligately aquatic, fish-like Devonian forms into a great range of body forms, sizes, and both aquatic and terrestrial modes of life, spanning both the lissamphibian and amniote total groups. The increasing diversity of terrestrial tetrapods throughout the Carboniferous and into the Permian has been characterized as a transition from ‘primitive’ food webs dependent on aquatic activity to ‘modern’, wholly land-based communities. However, this hypothesis is based on assumptions of a linear, adaptive process of tetrapod terrestrialization which is increasingly challenged by fossil data, and the continental structure during the Devonian-Carboniferous period. This study will combine anatomical description of fossils, geological and geographic data, and comparative food web modeling to investigate the process and context of tetrapod terrestrialization. The fellow will be trained in the conduct of fieldwork and the use of comparative paleoecological methods. Findings will be shared at scientific conferences, through publication in open-access journals, and with the broader public via community outreach events. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.