Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C506399/1
Terminal Cretaceous climate change and biotic response in Antarctica.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor J Francis, University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment
- Co-Investigator:
- Dr D Pirrie, University of Exeter, Camborne School of Mines
- Co-Investigator:
- Professor AM Haywood, University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment
- Grant held at:
- University of Leeds, School of Earth and Environment
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Global Change
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Palaeobiology
- Palaeoenvironments
- Climate & Climate Change
- Abstract:
- This project will investigate the nature of latest Cretaceous-early Tertiary climates in Antarctica. Geological evidence suggests that after the peak mid Cretaceous greenhouse warmth climates cooled considerably during the Maastrichtian (~7l-65Ma). Some scientists now argue that cooling was at times so severe that polar regions suffered short term glaciation, causing sea level changes world-wide. This challenges the current view that the Cretaceous greenhouse world was ice-free, implying instead that short term glacial climates punctuated supposedly stable warm climates. Such dramatic environmental change would have stressed terrestrial and marine biotas and made them particularly susceptible to early extinction related to the global environmental catastrophe at the end of the Cretaceous. Recent dating using strontium isotope stratigraphy has revealed that the Late Cretaceous sequence in the James Ross Basin, Antarctica is now the best sequence in the world in which to investigate Maastrichtian environments and climate change that led up to the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) catastrophe. This Maastrichtian sequence a) is over 1150m thick, allowing very high resolution analysis, (b) contains a well-exposed section in which the K/T boundary occurs, c) provides a linked record of both terrestrial (palaeobotanical) and marine (stable isotope) climate change from the same section, d) is extremely fossiliferous with a wide range of microfossil and invertebrate taxa which are exceptionally well preserved, and e) now has a litho-, bio- and chronostratigraphic framework needed for global correlation. This project will exploit this exceptional sequence to obtain high resolution records of palaeontological, sedimentological, and geochemical signals to: a) investigate the nature of latest Cretaceous-early Tertiary climate change at high latitudes, b) to test the hypothesis that ice was present at times and to compare with climate/ice-sheet model outputs, c) to determine the biological response to this environmental change in both terrestrial and marine high latitude ecosystems, and d) to understand the environmental context in which the K/T extinctions occurred.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C506399/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- AFI Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- AFI
This grant award has a total value of £237,072
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - T&S | Total - Staff | Total - Other Costs | Total - Indirect Costs | Total - Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £15,899 | £108,531 | £42,962 | £66,484 | £3,196 |
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