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SUMMARY:Deep Time Ecosystem Engineers:  The Correlation between Palaeozoic
  Sedimentation\, Vegetation\, and Habitats in Riverine Environments
DTSTART:20120918T161500
DTEND:20120918T171500
DTSTAMP:20260509T043048Z
UID:9bf035f447cf551d6e7dc9a6cf7b1bac8dd7e52ecad66f8fb52b3346
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Neil Davies\, Department of Geology and Soil Science\, Ghen
 t University (BE)\nEvidence from the deep time geological record attests t
 o the fundamental importance of plant life to the construction of physical
  habitats within fluvial environments. Data from an extensive literature r
 eview and original fieldwork demonstrates that many landforms and geomorph
 ic features present in modern river systems appear in the Palaeozoic strat
 igraphic record once terrestrial vegetation had adopted certain evolutiona
 ry advances: for example\, stable point bars are associated with the devel
 opment of deep rooting in the Siluro-Devonian and avulsive anabranching fl
 uvial systems appear at the same time as extensive arborescent vegetation 
 in the Carboniferous.  Many extrinsic factors have been considered when a
 ttempting to identify controls on the evolutionary timelines of terrestria
 lization for various different organisms. Factors such as O2 and CO2 level
 s in the atmosphere\, climatic events\, global tectonic organisation\, sea
 -level changes\, extinction events\, weathering rates and nutrient supply 
 are all known to have played a role.  However\, a fundamental prerequisit
 e for achieving terrestrial biodiversity was the variety of physical habit
 ats available for newly evolved organisms\, especially riparian systems. 
  In the Carboniferous\, the evolution of the anabranching habit within all
 uvial systems created further new physical landforms for colonization and 
 would have promoted increasingly complex hyporheic flow regimes. Furthermo
 re the associated increase in arborescent vegetation and supply of large w
 oody debris to rivers  would have created a wealth of new microhabitats f
 or continental organisms. We argue that the expanding extent and diversity
  of physical alluvial niches during the Palaeozoic is an underappreciated 
 driver of the terrestrialization of early continental life. The study of t
 he deep-time fossil and stratigraphic record also illustrates that vegetat
 ion is a fundamental prerequisite for the creation of biogeomorphic alluvi
 al landforms and physical habitats and microhabitats.  In this presentati
 on we illustrate new evidence for the interplay of vegetation\, fluvial se
 diments and novel organism habitats using data from original field investi
 gations into Carboniferous alluvium from extensive outcrop successions in 
 eastern Canada and the United States.
LOCATION:GR A3 32 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2032
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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