The evolution of modern marine ecosystems: environmental controls on their structure and function
Lead Research Organisation:
Natural History Museum
Department Name: Earth Sciences
Abstract
Currently, our marine ecosystems are threatened by a number of environmental changes, including rising global temperatures and changes in ocean circulation patterns. Most worryingly of all, recent surveys have shown that large parts of the ocean are running out of oxygen, creating so-called 'dead zones' where no marine animals can live. As these dead zones continue to expand significant numbers of marine species may become extinct. Although these environmental changes are of great concern to scientists today, it is not the first time that marine ecosystems have faced such threats. The fossil record shows us that at many times in the past global temperatures have risen, ocean circulation has slowed down, and oxygen-starved dead zones have expanded throughout the world's oceans. Understanding how marine ecosystems have been affected by past environmental change, and in particular trying to find out how they coped with increasing temperatures and decreasing amounts of oxygen, may help us predict how modern ecosystems will respond today and how best to manage the present crisis. Modern marine ecosystems took millions of years to evolve. The animal groups that we see today swimming in the oceans or living on the seafloor - the fish, shellfish, sea urchins, starfish, corals and plankton - mostly appeared in the aftermath of the biggest extinction event to have affected life on Earth around 250 million years ago. This event wiped out a whole range of previously successful groups of animals, and most of the survivors were the ancestors of modern sea creatures. This major extinction event, which took place in the late Permian period, was associated with rising global temperatures, changes in ocean circulation and expansion of oxygen-poor dead zones - the very same threats facing modern ecosystems today. As early modern-style ecosystems appeared and evolved after the Late Permian and through the Mesozoic, they were struck by a succession of similar environmental catastrophes, with similar combinations of global warming and expanding dead zones. All of these events caused widespread extinction. We will undertake the first study of the effect that global warming, changes in ocean circulation, and expansion of the oxygen-starved dead zones had on these early modern marine ecosystems. We will determine, for the first time, how the structure of these ecosystems changed through time, and in particular how well they functioned, in response to changing environmental conditions. Furthermore, we will evaluate whether there been an improvement in the resistance of marine ecosystems to extinction and collapse brought on by changes in temperature, ocean circulation and available oxygen. We will undertake these detailed studies to discover for the first time how the structure and function of marine ecosystems, from the seafloor to the ocean surface, responded to environmental changes. In order to address these questions, we will undertake a series of linked studies at two contrasting scales: (a) global-scale analyses of marine ecosystem response to long-term changes in global temperature and atmospheric carbon dioxide and oxygen levels; and (b) local-scale, high-resolution analyses of ecosystem response to local environmental changes in dissolved temperature, oxygen concentration, and ocean circulation. Local-scale analyses will involve field expeditions to sites in UK, Europe, America and the Arctic that are known to contain a detailed record through four key events in our study interval. Global-scale analyses will involve ecological study of published information and museum collections of all known marine taxa that existed through the Mesozoic. The results from our multidisciplinary study will represent a step-change in our understanding of the role(s) that environmental changes in temperature, ocean circulation and levels of dissolved oxygen had on the structure, function and early evolution of modern marine ecosystems.
Publications
Belben RA
(2017)
Ecological impact of the end-Cretaceous extinction on lamniform sharks.
in PloS one
Danise S
(2015)
Environmental controls on Jurassic marine ecosystems during global warming
in Geology
Danise S
(2022)
Land-sea ecological connectivity during a Jurassic warming event
in Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Danise S
(2019)
Stratigraphic and environmental control on marine benthic community change through the early Toarcian extinction event (Iberian Range, Spain)
in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
Dunhill A
(2017)
Impact of the Late Triassic mass extinction on functional diversity and composition of marine ecosystems
in Palaeontology
Dunhill AM
(2018)
Modelling determinants of extinction across two Mesozoic hyperthermal events.
in Proceedings. Biological sciences
Foster W
(2016)
A silicified Early Triassic marine assemblage from Svalbard
in Journal of Systematic Palaeontology
Foster W
(2014)
Functional diversity of marine ecosystems after the Late Permian mass extinction event
in Nature Geoscience
Description | Have had societal impact by engaging the public with issues related to past, present and future change. Cultural impact by adding to and enhancing museum collections |
First Year Of Impact | 2014 |
Sector | Education,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Societal |
Description | Danise: Rita Levi Montalcini |
Amount | € 152,933 (EUR) |
Organisation | Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research |
Sector | Public |
Country | Italy |
Start | 08/2018 |
End | 09/2021 |
Description | RJT: NERC 50th Anniversary Summer of Science (Outreach and Engagement) |
Amount | £7,500 (GBP) |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2015 |
End | 12/2015 |
Description | RJT: Palaeontological Association Grant-in-Aid for meeting support |
Amount | £2,000 (GBP) |
Funding ID | PA-GA201506 |
Organisation | Palaeontological Association |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2015 |
End | 11/2015 |
Description | WF: Jackson School Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow |
Amount | $140,000 (USD) |
Organisation | University of Texas at Austin |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United States |
Start | 11/2015 |
End | 10/2017 |
Description | WF:2015 Malacological Society of London Research Grant |
Amount | £1,500 (GBP) |
Organisation | Malacological Society of London |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start |
Description | WF:Palaeontological Association Callomon Award |
Amount | £1,500 (GBP) |
Funding ID | PA-CA201401 |
Organisation | Palaeontological Association |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2015 |
Description | Bristol_PermianTriassic |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Department | School of Chemistry |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We are analysing a suite of samples that are being studied for a range of different environmental proxies |
Collaborator Contribution | Facilities were used to run some pilot analyses |
Impact | No public outputs yet |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | Leeds_Jurassic |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Incorporating partner's unpublished data into our analyses, which led directly to significant, high profile publications led by us; hosting undergraduate student for summer research project and mentoring her early career development through her first conference presentations and publication; inviting partner to present with the group at conferences |
Collaborator Contribution | Providing unpublished data for our analyses; co-authoring publications; writing letters of support for early career researchers in our group |
Impact | Publications: Danise et al. (2013) PLoS ONE 8(2): e56255. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056255; Pugh et al., Geoscience in Southwest England (2015); Danise et al., Geology (2015); Dunhill et al., 2017; Dunhill et al., 2018 Conference presentations: Ussher's Society Annual Conference January 2014; Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting December 2012 and 2013; CRES Conference Plymouth November 2013; Long-term Coevolution of Life and the Planet meeting, London, November 2014 (2 oral and 1 poster presentation); GSA Annual Meeting, October 2012 Unpublished Report (Pugh 2013) Career development: undergraduate student successfully gained PhD position Multidiciplinary: palaeontology, geology, geochemistry |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Leeds_Jurassic |
Organisation | University of Leeds |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Incorporating partner's unpublished data into our analyses, which led directly to significant, high profile publications led by us; hosting undergraduate student for summer research project and mentoring her early career development through her first conference presentations and publication; inviting partner to present with the group at conferences |
Collaborator Contribution | Providing unpublished data for our analyses; co-authoring publications; writing letters of support for early career researchers in our group |
Impact | Publications: Danise et al. (2013) PLoS ONE 8(2): e56255. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056255; Pugh et al., Geoscience in Southwest England (2015); Danise et al., Geology (2015); Dunhill et al., 2017; Dunhill et al., 2018 Conference presentations: Ussher's Society Annual Conference January 2014; Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting December 2012 and 2013; CRES Conference Plymouth November 2013; Long-term Coevolution of Life and the Planet meeting, London, November 2014 (2 oral and 1 poster presentation); GSA Annual Meeting, October 2012 Unpublished Report (Pugh 2013) Career development: undergraduate student successfully gained PhD position Multidiciplinary: palaeontology, geology, geochemistry |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Madrid_Toarcian |
Organisation | Complutense University of Madrid |
Country | Spain |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | joint field work; sampling of sections for fossil invertebrate, microfossil and geochemical analyses; undertaking palaeoecological and geochemical studies; taxonomy of fossils |
Collaborator Contribution | Field logistics; joint fieldwork in northern and central Spain; hosting group members in Madrid; discussion of data |
Impact | Multdisciplinary: palaeontology, geology, geochemistry Stable Isotope analyses samples; Trace Element analyses; Palaeocological analyses Paper accepted pending revisions (Danise et al., Palaeo3) Conference presentation: 10th North American Palaeontological Convention, Gainesville, Florida. Somes of the samples formed basis of a Bachelor thesis at the University of Innsbruck (AU). Title of the project: Benthic foraminiferal response to the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event in Spain Manuscripts in preparation |
Start Year | 2012 |
Description | Nagoya_Triassic |
Organisation | Nagoya University |
Country | Japan |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | Undertaken collaborative field studies with colleagues in Japan; using our expertise and resources for analysis; sumitting co-authored manuscripts |
Collaborator Contribution | Hosting members of the group and related students; providing bench space and facilities; covering postage and other consumables; providing logistic support; submitting co-authored manuscripts |
Impact | JSPS-funded summer studentship for William Foster (2014) fieldtrips in 2011 and 2014 Manuscript in review with Zoological Science |
Start Year | 2011 |
Description | Stockholm_Toarcian |
Organisation | Swedish Museum of Natural History |
Country | Sweden |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Providing samples, datasets and expertise for collaborative research project building on NERC-funded research |
Collaborator Contribution | Palynological data analysis and interpretations; modelling; joint authorship of publications |
Impact | Submitted manuscript accepted for Nature Geoscience Manuscripts in prep Talks given at IPC 2018 |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Boreal Triassic II conference |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Twitchett and Foster attended this major international conference on the Triassic of the Arctic and authored or co-authored talks and posters, which sparked discussions and questions afterwards |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://foreninger.uio.no/ngf/Boreal2/index.html |
Description | Danise PalAss 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Conference oral presentation at Annual meeting of Palaeontological Association: S. Danise, M.E. Clemence, G. Price, J.J. Gómez, R.J. Twitchett. 2018. Stratigraphic and environmental control on marine benthic community change through the early Toarcian extinction event (Iberian Range, Spain). 62nd Annual Meeting of the Palaeontological Association, Programme and Abstracts p. 31 (ORAL PRESENTATION). Audience of ca. 150. Sparked questions and discussion afterwards |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Danise: Geoscience Colloquium Series, University fo Georgia, USA |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Talk on fossil record of Mesozoic marine reptile dead falls which sparked a number of questions and follow up contact from several undergraduate students about opportunities to work on the topic. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Danise: Swedish Museum of Natural History seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | An invited research seminar given during a workshop |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Dorchester Museum talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | presentation to 100 members of the general public on the Late Triassic extinction event which sparked questions and discussion afterwards |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
Description | EGU General Assembly, Vienna 2015 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The largest Geoscience meeting in Europe. Danise co-chaired a session and Twitchett and Danise co-authored a presentation, all of which sparked questions and discussions |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://projectmarest.weebly.com/news/symposium-at-the-2015-egu-conservation-stratigraphic-palaeobiol... |
Description | FossilBlitz 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | ca 25 Jurassic Coast rangers and families participated in a one day Fossilblitz in Pinhay Bay, southwest of Lyme Regis, in conjunction with Jurassic Coast Trust. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017 |
Description | Fossilblitz 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | ca. 100 Rockwatch and Jurassic Ranger children, their parents and members of the public attended the second citizen science Fossilblitz event at Lyme Regis |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Foster: DeFord Lecture Series, University of Texas, Austin |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited seminar |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Foster: Oklahoma State University Departmental Seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited departmental seminar |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2015 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | The major international geological conference on the calendar. Twitchett co-chaired an all day symposium; gave a talk; co-authored posters with Foster; with Belben and colleagues at NHM and Birkbeck; with colleagues from BAS, Leeds, NHM (Fossilblitz). Danise gave a presentation; Foster gave a keynote presentation. All activities sparked a number of questions and discussions. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Jurassic Fossilblitz |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Held as part of NERC's 50th Anniversary Summer of Science, the Jurassic Fossilblitz - the first event of its kind - brought together colleagues from NHM, Leeds University, BAS, Natural England and the Jurassic Coast World heritage site along with 200+ members of the general public of all ages for a fossil geoblitz activity at Lyme Regis. There was twitter feed, radio and local media interest, as well as ongoing national and international interest as the results of the activity have been disseminated worldwide. As a result, a number of individuals have discussed their own similar events and support the idea of holding future such events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | https://twitter.com/FossilBlitz |
Description | Manchester GA talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Invited lecture to discuss past global warming and extinctions |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting 2015 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | The premier European annual palaeontological meeting at which Twitchett presented a poster (Fossilblitz group), and co-authored talks and posters with Foster (highly commended); Belben, Johanson and Underwood; and Allen and Danise. All sparked discussion, questions and tweets. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Press release for Geology paper |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Press release for the Geology 2015 paper that also featured on the museum pages |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.nhm.ac.uk/our-science/science-news/2015/march/fossils-used-to-predict-impact-of-global-wa... |
Description | SEPM OAE Conference (Texas) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Conference presentation which sparked questions and discussion |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Slater IPC 2018 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Conference presentation: S. Slater, R.J. Twitchett, S. Danise, V.Vajda. 2018. Abrupt ecosystem changes during an Early Jurassic (Toarcian) global warming episode. Fifth International Palaeontological Congress, Abstract with Programme, p. 559. (ORAL PRESENTATION). Sparked questions and discussion afterwards |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Twitchett: Imperial College research seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | An invited seminar for the student geological society of Imperial College held in December, which sparked questions on the day and a significant spike in page views of a recent article (Foster and Twitchett, 2014, Nature Geoscience) that was flagged in the lecture. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Twitchett: Invited keynote GSA Annual Meeting, Seattle, USA |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited keynote talk in a topical symposium dedicated to citizen science in palaeontology |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
URL | https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2017AM/webprogram/Paper298954.html |
Description | Twitchett: Lindemann lecture, English Speaking Union |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | An invited lecture on the topic of body size change during past global warming events, which sparked discussions and questions |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Twitchett: Lyme Regis Fossil Festival 2015 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | During the Lyme Regis Fossil I was involved with a live-streamed 'Nature Live' event about Jurassic marine ecosystems that reached an audience in the Natural History Museum and through the web, and also at the event I was involved with various other outreach activities engaging children and adults in palaeontology. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Twitchett: NHM Biotic Responses meeting, invited talk |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | An invited talk at a one day meeting on Biotic Responses to Environmental Change at NHM, London. Talk entitled "Shrinking shellfish and marine ecosystem function during past episodes of global climate change". Sparked discussion, questions, tweets, follow up talks and a new NHM webpage dedicated to my work of size reduction in fossil organisms in response to past climate change |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
URL | http://www.naturalhistorymuseum.org.uk/content/dam/nhmwww/our-science/events/programme-biotic-respon... |
Description | Twitchett: Nature Communications press release |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | Press release was picked up by national and international media outlets to promote Nature Communications article (Nature Communciations, 5:4789, DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5789) Stimulated a large number of tweets, blogs and views of the article, which resulted in an Altmetric score of 92, placing it in the 99th percentile of all articles ever tracked by Altmetrics. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
URL | http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140910/ncomms5789/metrics |
Description | Twitchett: Portsmouth research seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited departmental research seminar, which sparked questions and discussions from students and academic staff |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | Twitchett: Southampton research seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited departmental seminar at the NOC, University of Southampton, which sparked questions and discussions afterwards |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Twitchett: Swedish Museum of Natural History |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
Results and Impact | Invited seminar during research workshop |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | Twitchett: UCL research seminar |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | Invited departmental research seminar on marine ecosystems in hothouse worlds, which sparked questions and follow up discussions with several academics |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
Description | Yorks Fossil Festival 2016 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | During the Fossil Festival weekend, ca. 220 children and their parents engaged with my novel game that involved learning about the effects of climate change on marine animals ('Extinction Kerplunk') |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |