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Earth History research at GNS is
funded through three New Zealand government research funds:
The Marsden
Fund administered by the Royal
Society,
The Public
Good Science and Technology Fund (PGST) and Science
and Technology Postdoctoral Fellowships, both administered by
the Foundation for Research Science and Technology (FRST).
Follow the links to learn more about these funds at
the Royal Society and FRST web sites.
GNS Marsden Fund research in Earth History
- Origin of Marine Diversity: the Example of Tonnoidean
Gastropod Dispersalists. This project seeks to understand how
"life-history strategies" of a particular group of molluscs
- the tonnoidean gastropods (snails) - influence their long-term
survival and biological "success". In this case, "life-history
strategies" refers to whether they have larvae that are widely
dispersed by marine currents, or whether the larvae settle close
to their parents. Life-history strategy may have a profound influence
on rates of evolution, susceptibility to extinction, and geographic
spread of species, and is thus an important determinant of the
overall character of the marine fauna in any region. The project
is led by Dr Alan Beu.
- What Controlled Past Biodiversity? Using the rich
New Zealand Cenozoic mollusc record, this project aims to identify
the major factors that influenced biodiversity (the number of
species) in the marine environment over the past 65 million years.
Biodiversity is the sum of opposing forces: the rate of evolution
and inward migration of new species versus their local or global
extinction. The project is, therefore, examining biological characters
of the organisms that might have controlled how rapidly they evolved,
how prone they were to becoming extinct, and how rapidly they
could migrate. It is also studying features of the wider environment,
such as temperature and climate, sea level, and changes in major
marine currents, that might have influenced the richness of the
fauna. The project is led by Dr James Crampton and Dr Alan Beu.
GNS PGSF research in Earth History
Global Change
Through Time. This project aims to increase knowledge of ancient
environments and environmental change in order to improve New
Zealand's ability to predict the impacts of future environmental
change and to plan effective responses. The project is founded on
the premise that the past is the key to the future. Sedimentary
rocks contain detailed information on past floras and faunas, climates,
oceans and ice-sheets. Analogues for any predicted and potential
future environmental change are recorded in these geological archives.
This research, therefore, is tapping into these archives to learn
about causes, processes, rates and limits of past global change.
The project uses information from a wide range of fossils, including
molluscs, foraminifera, radiolaria, spores and pollen, and dinoflagellates,
from chemical and physical signals preserved in rocks, fossils and
ice, and magnetic properties of rocks. The project is led by Dr
James Crampton.
Other GNS PGSF research projects that have components
that relate to Earth History are Basin
Evolution and Petroleum Potential; The Geology
of New Zealand's Landscape; and Impacts
of Global Plate Tectonics in and Around New Zealand.
S&T Post-Doctoral Fellowship research in Earth History at
GNS
Liz Kennedy: Quantitative paleoclimate analysis of fossil leaf floras
from New Zealand.
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