Descent into the icehouse
Lead Research Organisation:
Imperial College London
Department Name: Life Sciences
Abstract
See lead submission by Southampton
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Andy Purvis (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Fenton I
(2014)
Onset of Eocene diversity gradients in macroperforate planktonic foraminifera
in Rendiconti online della Società Geologica Italiana
Fenton IS
(2016)
Environmental Predictors of Diversity in Recent Planktonic Foraminifera as Recorded in Marine Sediments.
in PloS one
Fenton IS
(2016)
The impact of Cenozoic cooling on assemblage diversity in planktonic foraminifera.
in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
| Description | One of the most obvious global patterns in biodiversity the latitudinal diversity gradient - there are more species per unit area at the tropics than near the poles. However, there are literally dozens of hypotheses about how this gradient came about. One of the main difficulties in testing these ideas is that they mostly make the same predictions about present-day diversity, differing only in the predictions they make about past diversity; and the fossil record is usually not good enough to test these competing predictions. We used the unparalleled fossil record of planktonic foraminifera to examine in more detail than ever before how and when the latitudinal diversity gradient came about. First, we related present-day geographic variation in species richness to environmental measures such as water temperature. Then we tried fitting the same diversity-environment model to fossil data on diversity. We found that the diversity-environment relationship that we see today began during the Eocene (a period when the world was much warmer than today), long before the world flipped into today's 'icehouse' state in which there are permanent ice caps at the poles. These results suggest that the diversity gradient was not caused only by the global cooling at the end of the Eocene, but also a change in the 'rules' by which environment structures diversity. |
| Exploitation Route | Understanding global patterns in diversity is crucial if society is to manage biodiversity sustainably in a changing world. These findings help to clarify how environments structure and regulate diversity, improving our ability to predict how future environmental change may impact marine ecosystems. |
| Sectors | Environment |
| URL | http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/371/1691/20150224 |
| Description | DoLS Travel Award Application |
| Amount | £500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Imperial College London |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 07/2015 |
| Description | Travel Grant |
| Amount | £500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | The Micropaleontological Society |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 07/2015 |
| Description | Travel and Training Grant |
| Amount | £500 (GBP) |
| Organisation | British Ecological Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2015 |
| End | 07/2015 |
| Description | Coverage for research on New York Times website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Microscopic Neighbors, Evolving Together It seems obvious that how different living things in a community or ecological system bump up against one another would affect how they evolve. That would include everything from the mix of fish in a lake to the bacteria, fungi and insects that coexist in rainwater that pools in the roots at the base of a beech tree... Readers of the website found out about this research |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| URL | http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/16/science/microscopic-neighbors-evolving-together.html?_r=0 |
| Description | Evolution conference (Brazil) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I gave a talk at the Evolution 2015 conference, which was held near Sao Paulo in Brazil |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015 |
| URL | http://evolution2015.org/ |
| Description | Geological Society of America (Colorado) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I presented my work at the GSA 2016 conference in Denver, Colorado |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Public engagement at Science Uncovered event at the Natural History Museum, 28th September 2012 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Public learned scientific information about microbial diversity and evolution in the context of digestive health Public expressed interest and learned new facts |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Regulators of biodiversity in deep time workshop (Sao Paulo |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A workshop investigating the regulators of diversity in deep time. There were two meetings: one based on Southampton, UK and one based in Sao Paulo, Brazil |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014,2015 |
| Description | Science Uncovered - Natural History Museum (September 2013) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Science Uncovered is a widely-advertised and well-attended public outreach event hosted at the Natural History Museum in London, where scientist engage with the public face-to-face basis to discuss their research and its implications in an informal setting. I represented Imperial College London, accompanied by two PhD students, and discussed my group's work, which included the current grant, under the general theme of ecological responses and alterations to energy flux in food webs due to environmental stressors. At our stall we spoke to several hundred visitors throughout the day. See description above. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |