Amanda Godbold
Research Endeavors
Conservation paleobiology plays a vital role in bridging the gap between paleontological research and modern conservation efforts. By integrating deep-time perspectives with contemporary ecological challenges, it offers critical insights into the drivers of biodiversity change, ecosystem resilience, and strategies for mitigating future loss. Studying both ancient and modern reefs offers a unique opportunity to investigate the enduring resilience and vulnerabilities of these remarkable ecosystems. It emphasizes their crucial role in supporting Earth’s biodiversity and underscores the pressing need to protect them for future generations.
Ongoing
Ecological Transformations During the Formation of the Isthmus of Panama
CENOZOIC
The formation of the Isthmus of Panama, completed around 3 million years ago, triggered dramatic transformations in marine ecosystems on both sides, particularly in the Caribbean. These changes, including a collapse in productivity, species extinctions and originations, and the rise of extensive coral reefs, are vividly preserved in the fossil record.
The Panama Paleontology Project (PPP), launched at STRI by Jeremy Jackson and Anthony Coates, amassed extensive data on these events. Building on this foundation, I am working with Sean Connolly’s lab, Aaron O’Dea’s lab, and original PPP contributors to explore the dynamics of marine metacommunities across ecological and evolutionary timescales. This research provides essential insights into how marine ecosystems respond to rapid environmental changes, contributing valuable knowledge to contemporary ocean conservation efforts.
Dr. Sean Connolly
Dr. Aaron O'dea
Javier Pardo
Submitted
2024
Ancient Frameworks as Modern Templates: Exploring Reef Rubble Consolidation in an Ancient Reef System
Natural and human-induced stressors intensify reef erosion, leading to the formation of rubble fields. The consolidation of rubble has been recognized for promoting reef recovery, sparking interest in stabilizing rubble beds as a method for reef restoration. Despite this, our understanding of the natural processes involved in coral reef regeneration within rubble beds remains limited. This study delves into the phenomenon of reef regeneration within ancient rubble frameworks along the Late-Triassic Dachstein platform. The findings suggest that Late Triassic rubble environments exhibit comparable successional trajectories to their modern counterparts. Key organisms like sponges, calcareous red algae, bryozoans, microbes, and corals, known for aiding in the stabilization of modern reef rubble, appear to have played similar roles in stabilizing Late Triassic reef rubble. The demonstration of parallel ecological dynamics in Late Triassic and modern reef rubble strongly supports the application of these insights for the future restoration of contemporary coral reef settings.
Dr. Chase James
Dr. Emilia Jarochowska
Niklas Hohmann Msc
Dr. Niklas Hohmann
Dr. Wolfgang Kiessling
Dr. David Bottjer
In preparation
2024
Beyond Traditional Reef Analysis: Utilizing Reef Debris to Decipher the History of the Dachstein Platform
This investigation delves into the Dachstein Massif reef complex, with a particular focus on the Feisterscharte and Gosaukamm localities. By employing a combined approach of meticulous field observations and microfacies analysis, the research reveals the development of incipient patch reefs within a sheltered shallow marine environment intermittently punctuated by high-energy events such as storms and hurricanes. These reef structures were primarily constructed by calcisponges, with contributions from scleractinian corals, calcareous algae, benthic foraminifera, and microproblematica. The stability and rigidity of the reefs were further enhanced by the presence of microbial crusts and biogenic encrustations.
The presence of substantial accumulations of reef breccia suggests the formation of storm ridges. These ridges, in the absence of a well-developed barrier reef system, might have functioned as natural buffers, mitigating wave energy and fostering a protected environment conducive to the observed reef development. However, the spatial and temporal distribution of storm-generated material underscores the precarious nature of this platform. The continual movement of storm ridges, shingles, or wedges in a lagoonward direction resulted in the complete or partial burial of the incipient reefs. Consequently, the inability of these frame-building organisms to establish massive, wave-resistant structures may be attributed to the combined effects of storm ridge movement and being smothered by storm-generated carbonate sand and mud deposits.
Dr. Chase James
Dr. Emilia Jarochowska
Niklas Hohmann Msc
Dr. Niklas Hohmann
Dr. Wolfgang Kiessling
Dr. David Bottjer
Published
2023
MESOZOIC
Contrasting terrestrial and marine ecospace dynamics after the end-Triassic mass extinction event.
Mass extinctions have profound impacts on Earth's biosphere, particularly in marine ecosystems, where ecological severity is well-studied. However, understanding the ecological response of terrestrial ecosystems to mass extinctions has been hindered by the lack of a comparable ecospace methodology. This study introduces a new terrestrial ecospace framework, categorizing fauna based on tiering, motility, and feeding traits. Analyzing Paleobiology Database data across the end-Triassic mass extinction, a period of global warming, both terrestrial and traditional marine ecospace methodologies are applied. The findings reveal higher extinction severity for terrestrial functional groups compared to marine, tighter coupling of taxonomic and functional richness in the terrestrial realm, and sustained ecological dissimilarity post-extinction in terrestrial ecosystems. These results suggest greater ecological pressure from the end-Triassic mass extinction on terrestrial ecosystems, leading to prolonged ecological flux compared to marine ecosystems.
Dr. Alison Cribb
Dr. Kiersten Formoso
Dr. Hank Woolley
et al.
Published
2022
Palaeoecology of the Hiraiso Formation and implications for the recovery following the end-Permian mass extinction
This study explores the Hiraiso Formation in northeast Japan, an underexplored Early Triassic marine ecosystem. Conducting a comprehensive palaeoecological analysis, it examines temporal and spatial variations in benthic faunas, using redox proxies to understand depositional environments. Focused on the Early Triassic recovery pace, it investigates the habitable zone hypothesis, indicating wave-aerated marine environments as oxygenated refuges. Despite uncertain age, new ammonoid findings support an early Spathian age. Ichnofossils exhibit an onshore-offshore pattern, revealing high diversity in offshore transition settings and lower diversity in basinal settings. Body fossils show no spatial or temporal changes due to wave reworking, indicating allochthonous assemblages. The ecological state suggests an advanced recovery for the Early Triassic, marked by the Spathian as pivotal in post-mass extinction recovery. Onshore-offshore distribution supports the habitable zone hypothesis, extending beyond anoxic events to oxygen-influenced ecological gradients. The lack of full recovery is attributed to persistent oxygen limitation, elevated Early Triassic temperatures, and a gentle temperature/water-depth gradient within the habitable zone.
Dr. William Foster
Dr. Arnaud Brayard
Dr. Anja Frank
Dr. Stephen Grasby
Dr. Richard Twitchett
Dr. Tatsuo Oji
Published
2017
Precarious ephemeral refugia during the earliest Triassic
This study investigates the concept of refuges in paleoecology, focusing on a community ∼50 k.y. post-end-Permian mass extinction (EPME). Preserved in the Shangsi section, south China, the assemblage comprises trace fossils, bivalves, and echinoids on a microbial mat in a slope environment. The microbial community served as a stable substrate, food source, and oxygen supply, forming a refuge during environmental stress. Despite the prevailing interpretation of shallow-water microbial communities as refugia, this deeper site played a crucial role for organisms sensitive to surface temperatures of 34 °C. The success of a cidaroid echinoid, migrating to cooler deep waters for development, underscores the importance of such refugia for survival post-EPME. The refuge was short-lived, collapsing when conditions became suboptimal, allowing opportunistic taxa to colonize. This study suggests that earliest Triassic refugia might have been restricted to ephemeral environmental settings until organisms adapted to persisting harsh conditions.
Dr. Shane Schoepfer
Dr. Shuzhong Shen
Dr. Charles Henderson
Published
2024
Temporal dynamics of Devonian reef communities: Insights into natural phase shifts and long-term resilience in the face of environmental variability
Living coral cover is rapidly decreasing due to global climate change and local human impacts. Response to the ongoing transformation of coral reefs requires a deep understanding of the mechanisms that regulate community assembly and sustain biodiversity in these systems. The goal of this study is to test the persistence of Devonian reef communities across 70 sea-level fluctuation cycles. Abundance data were collected for in situ coral and calcareous sponge taxa found along 164 transects across two field localities within the Canning Basin, Western Australia. The Bray-Curtis dissimilarity index was used to quantify the dissimilarity in taxonomic composition among transects. Despite the notable persistence of reef communities over numerous cycles (ranging from 22 to 29 cycles) spanning hundreds of thousands of years, significant taxonomic shifts unfolded over millions of years, primarily driven by the diversity and composition of coral assemblages. This indicates that while reef communities exhibit persistence over intermediate time scales, they undergo changes in taxonomic composition over extended periods. The observed shifts in taxonomic composition likely reflect the profound changes in Earth-surface systems that occurred during the Devonian (i.e., fluctuations in global sea-surface temperatures and sea-level). Therefore, sustained abiotic processes can act to disrupt community structure over extended time scales as the threshold for community persistence is exceeded. This study helps establish baseline community composition dynamics in systems devoid of human influence and thus deepens our understanding of naturally occurring phase shifts. Understanding the factors that contribute to the persistence of community assembly across multiple scales is crucial for conserving coral reef ecosystems in the face of ongoing environmental changes.
PALEOZOIC
Nina Clark
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Emer Cunningham
Dr. David Bottjer
Dr. John Pandolfi