Understanding the Earth system through a tiny lens
The University of Victoria Micropaleontology lab works on how marine plankton respond to different biotic and abiotic forces using their extremely well-resolved fossil record. The IPCC (5th report) stated understanding the unique vulnerabilities of the pelagic ecosystem to climate change was a critical open question. Critical because calcareous marine plankton perform an important ecosystem service, moving calcium carbonate to the ocean bottom, facilitating the ocean’s capacity to buffer atmospheric CO2, while all marine plankton are a key part of the biological pump.
Paleobiology and Paleoceanography
We do this work by using paleobiology to answer paleoceanographic questions, and vice versa. Students in my group work with a variety of methods: from programming and database work, to taxonomy and microfossil assemblages, to paleoceanographic proxies, and and so on. The group is involved with a number of different projects from large database efforts, to climate changes at the Oligocene Miocene boundary, to the evolution of planktic foraminifera at both the macro- and microevolutionary scale, to bettering conditions for early career researchers.
The goal of eODP is to make over five decades of scientific ocean drilling data discoverable and easily visualized for researchers and non-scientists. eODP will start as a comprehensive scientific ocean drilling stratigraphy and fossil occurrence system nestled in two highly successful databases: Paleobiology Database (PBDB; ~1.5 million fossil occurrences, alongside taxonomy and associated information), and Macrostrat (age models, >35,000 surface and subsurface rock units). There are also funds to guide and develop this system as a community-driven resource, through multiple workshops and other community involvement. If you are interested in becoming involved, please let me know.
I plan to use this new system to investigate how plankton ecology affects pelagic carbonate production. Ecological (e.g., abundance, geographic range) or evolutionary (e.g., extinction) changes in the plankton are generally not included when discussing historical Calcite Compensation Depth (CCD) fluctuations, despite evidence that local CaCO3 flux impacts the CCD. Climate and biogeochemical models generally ignore key aspects of pelagic microorganisms: their evolution, ecology, abundances, productivity or flux, or even the size of their shells or liths (the tiny plates of a calcareous nannofossil). How pelagic ecosystems react to changes in climate is a clear weakness in our understanding, as called out by past IPCC reports.
eODP is a collaborative effort by myself, Jocelyn Sessa, Leah LeVay, and Shanan Peters, funded by NSF’s EarthCube program.
Prospective Students
I am happy to discuss the possibilities of you joining the lab if you are interested in a PhD or MSc. I have limited funds to work with, however, so please don’t be suprised if my answer has to be no. There are funding sources avaliable specifically to individual Canadian students through NSERC (MSc or PhD), and there is one very competitive international funding scheme (Varnier). Please, if you are planning on applying for these, get in touch with me as soon as you can. We both need to agree that we will work together, and I’m happy to help with project ideas and text. Many of these funds have internal UVic competitions well before the official deadlines that you see on the funds website. Starting early is important. Lastly, as a word of advice, copying and pasting from my faculty website is usually not impressive when asking about potential graduate positions!
For more info
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