Acquisition of Equipment for a Paleobotany Laboratory at Penn State

0236489

Wilf

The PI is beginning a tenure-track appointment in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University and is setting up a paleobotany lab for research and teaching. This award supports the acquisition of fundamental laboratory equipment such as specimen cases, microscopes, computers, photographic supplies, and fossil preparation equipment. The PI's research program is quantitative in nature and relies on large sample sizes, and the award will help to support the collection and active curation of several thousand specimens of fossil plants at a time in a modern facility. Housing of specimens at Penn State allows them to be used on a daily basis by the PI and students. The award provides the material infrastructure for several research initiatives involving the improved understanding of changes in past terrestrial ecosystems and climates, such as (1) methods for using fossil plants to quantify paleoclimates; (2) terrestrial climates and vegetation across the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, a time of mass extinctions; (3) terrestrial climates and vegetation during the late Paleocene-early Eocene interval of global warming; and (4) the response of insect herbivory, seen on fossil leaves, to climate changes and other perturbations from the Cretaceous to the Eocene. The laboratory infrastructure expedited by the award will support the training of undergraduates, graduate students, and postdocs, support their research projects, and make possible the housing and maintenance of paleobotanical teaching collections at Penn State.

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