BRC-BIO: Advancing Conservation Paleobiology through Ecometrics: Integrating Functional Traits and Environments of Past, Present, and Future Faunas

South Dakota State University, Brookings SD

Investigators

Abstract

Conservation paleobiology uses the fossil record to support informed decisions about management and conservation of biodiversity. One way to study biodiversity is to use functional traits, or physical characteristics, which determine how animals interact with their surroundings. For example, the shape of ankle bones is related to the type of habitat, such as forest or grassland, where animals live. The study of relationships between traits and environments, also called ecometrics, enables researchers to study animals that lived at different times or in different places. Researchers can use the fossil record to learn how animals responded to environmental changes in the past and to predict how animals might respond in the future. This project will facilitate collaboration between two early career researchers, training for two graduate students, and research experiences for undergraduate students. Outcomes of this project will be presented to the public through a student-led exhibit at the South Dakota Mines Museum of Geology. This project will use the extensive fossil record and the modern natural ecosystems of Wind Cave National Park (WICA) to better understand mammal assemblages and their relationships with the environment across space and time. The researchers will examine four WICA fossil sites spanning several glacial (cold) and interglacial (warm) periods over the last ~200,000 years. They will also source data on the mammals living within WICA today. By combining these data, the researchers will generate estimates of the direction and size of change at each site over time and into the future. First, this project will assess changes in community diversity, including the types of species present and the ecological roles they occupy, by studying past mammal assemblages that are housed at the South Dakota Mines Museum of Geology. Second, this project will use ecometric models of functional trait-environment relationships to identify how these mammal communities respond to environmental change through time. Third, this project will use climate projections to estimate what traits might be necessary for future faunal communities to be successful in this region. This project is jointly funded by the Population and Community Ecology cluster in the Division of Environmental Biology, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the Division of Biological Infrastructure. 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.