| NSF Org: |
DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | July 16, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 16, 2015 |
| Award Number: | 1503611 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Reed Beaman
rsbeaman@nsf.gov (703)292-7163 DBI Division of Biological Infrastructure BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | August 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | July 31, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $352,407.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $352,407.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1259 TRUMANSBURG RD ITHACA NY US 14850-1313 (607)273-6623 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
1259 Trumansburg Road Ithaca NY US 14850-1313 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): | Digitization |
| Primary Program Source: |
|
| Program Reference Code(s): | |
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Fossils provide our only direct evidence of past biodiversity and how individual organisms to ecosystems have responded to past and long-term environmental change. This project fills a major gap in the documentation of past environmental change, making available digitized data from the especially rich fossil record of the eastern Pacific marine invertebrate communities of the Cenozoic, the 66 million years that have passed since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Digitization and integration of these data will foster increased accessibility, efficient analysis to understand past change, the identification of factors involved in that change, and enable predictions for how current biodiversity may be impacted by future change. Development of virtual fieldwork experiences will assist stakeholders and educators in understanding how field data and fossil collections are used to infer past ecosystem and environmental conditions.
The data currently exist as a vast collection of fossil specimens and printed materials distributed among multiple natural history collections: this project involves 7 primary institutions, one small collection and one federal institution and will integrate this digitized specimen data with the other two ongoing fossil networks through the web portal iDigPaleo, expanding the resource for fossil invertebrate information by spanning over 500 million years. This wealth of data will provide resources not only to researchers, but will be made available to K-16 educators, government, industry, and the general public. Through the national resource (iDigBio) these data will be integrated with information on modern organisms providing the means to understand important questions on niches, environmental change, transitions in sea levels, etc. Additionally, undergraduate and graduate students will be trained in the modern uses of natural history collections. This award is made as part of the National Resource for Digitization of Biological Collections through the Advancing Digitization of Biological Collections program and all data resulting from this award will be available through the national resource (iDigBio.org).
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Eastern Pacific Invertebrate Communities of the Cenozoic (EPICC) Thematic Collections Network was a collaboration of 11 US invertebrate paleontology collections. The goal of the EPICC project was to digitally capture and mobilize data and associated images for fossil marine invertebrate specimens from the eastern Pacific Rim (Alaska to Chile) that span the last 66 million years of Earth’s history and make them broadly accessible to the research community, K-16 teachers and students, and the general public. As part of this collaboration, the Paleontological Research Institution (PRI) databased 327,946 specimens, imaged 12,714 unique specimens, and georeferenced 1,757 localities, meeting or exceeding all project goals. These data were made publicly available online, greatly increasing their accessibility and discoverability. The specimen data that PRI contributed to the EPICC project is especially relevant to the invertebrate paleontology and global change biology research communities for understanding how organisms responded to environmental changes in the past. This information will allow for more accurate predictions of how modern organisms may respond to climate change and other environmental changes occurring today and in the future.
Beyond the scientific value of the specimen data that PRI contributed to the EPICC project, one graduate and 12 undergraduate students were trained. Hands-on training in specimen curation, georeferencing, use of biodiversity data standards, research, databasing as well as photography provided skills that can be transferred not only to future careers in museums, but also for careers in other fields in the biological and geological sciences. Education staff at PRI and the University of California Museum of Paleontology also collaborated to create publicly available Virtual Fieldwork Experiences (VFEs) for four classic (west coast of the US) Cenozoic fossil localities highlighting the Palos Verdes area in southern California, the Kettleman Hills of central California, the Purisima Formation along the central California coast and the Astoria Formation in Oregon. VFEs allow educators, no matter the grade level, to have a resource available to help them teach about how scientists use observations in the field and museum collections to learn about the history of the Earth and its life. VFEs also allow students who have no means of actually physically visiting a site to have an enhanced learning experience, which is especially important during the current COVID-19 global pandemic.
Last Modified: 10/29/2020
Modified by: Gregory P Dietl
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
