Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Californian CESU

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The US Geological Survey is offering a funding opportunity to members of the Californian CESU to support research into the response of foraminifera to two past periods of global warmth: the mid-Pliocene and the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). While the mid-Pliocene (~3 Ma) is the most recent sustained period of global warmth similar in global average temperature to what is projected for the near future, the PETM (~56 Ma) is the closest natural analog to the modern rate of temperature rise. Both offer natural laboratories to better understand the response of ecosystems to elevated or rapidly increasing temperatures. The overarching objective of this agreement is to investigate biotic patterns of foraminifera during the mid-Pliocene and the Paleocene-Eocene by characterizing species assemblage changes through statistical analyses.

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