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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DeepTrees (Computational modelling of evolutionary dynamics in the deep sea)

Teaser

Summary

DeepTrees is developing accurate methods to compare living and fossil species diversity. The research focusses on marine invertebrates that have persisted through past mass extinction events: the survivors, found in large density in natural deep-sea communities on organic substrata, using samples already secured for this project. Therefore the scope of the project encompasses evolutionary biology, bioinformatics, and deep sea biology.

Human society is facing an accelerating loss of biodiversity. This is a significant threat, not only to wild places, but also to human health. We depend on the environment for consumable resources, but also the biotic interchange of large-scale environmental phenomena interact with climate in ways that are not fully understood. The modern extinction of species is frequently compared to past mass extinction events in earth\'s history; however, the metrics used to assess biotic change in the fossil record are substantially different to the living biota as the fossil record is far more data limited. These past extinction events, however, provide the best guide to accurately predict environmental responses to future and ongoing diversity loss. Developing strong, quantitatively robust comparisons between past, and present extinctions is imperative to understand the present diversity crisis.

A further, important task of this project, was to communicate among scientific disciplines, developing new ways to articulate the lessons of long-term evolutionary patterns in the fossil record to ecologists and environmental managers who work primarily in modern systems without formal training in palaeontology. These aims were achieved through the publication of 20 papers and 1 book authored by Julia Sigwart, as well as numerous conference presentations, invited seminars, and participation in international networks, knowledge transfer and training activities around the world.

Work performed

The implementation of the outgoing phase of this project in University of California, Berkeley, Museum of Paleontology, had two important factors. First, the development of novel datasets to analyse morphological and genetic diversity of marine invertebrate species. This used traditional methods and through collaboration with the nearby Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Advanced Light Source, using their micro-tomography synchrotron beamline. This has enabled three-dimensional modelling of structures inside mollusc shells never observed before, and led to further ongoing collaborations that will continue after the present project. Second, these data feed into computational modelling approaches, exploring the impacts of variable speciation and extinction rates through deep time on the resulting diversity of species on earth today.

The project has resulted in 31 public presentations at conferences and invited seminars, 20 papers published and available through open access, and 1 book. A symposium in January 2018 provided a knowledge transfer workshop and resulted in a published proceedings volume with 9 original papers from diverse perspectives with international contributors.

During the first phase of this project, to gather high-quality specimen material for analysis, Sigwart spend more than one month at sea on the Japanese research vessel Yokosuka and did a dive in a submersible to the bottom of the Indian Ocean, more than 3.3 km below the sea surface. The specimens gathered during that cruise, and collaborative experiments conducted onboard, directly contributed to the outputs of this action. Experiments performed at sea during that cruise were published in Year 3 of this project and were featured on the journal cover.

Now, data about living species diversity are being used to calibrate new computational models that simulate the evolution of species on earth, to develop new hypotheses about the interactions of speciation rates, extinction, and environmental change, which have resulted in journal articles published during this project and new hypotheses that will provide the basis for additional further research beyond.

Final results

During the first phase of the project, Sigwart worked to engage with public understanding of science and popularise the results of the project. This has resulted in coverage on local television, online press, and social media throughout the project.

In order to reach a broader academic audience, beyond the specialist field focussed on this research topic, Sigwart has secured an agreement from Taylor and Francis publishers to publish the results of the project in the form of a book, which was released in October 2018.