William Foster
Young Academy Alumni
Museum für Naturkunde
University Potsdam
Starting date: 1st October 2017
T-Profile (view)
What is a T-Profile?
Looking outside of one's own (academic) box is part of the program of the Geo.X Young Academy: Since innovative solutions to complex problems require several disciplines, it is beneficial for problem solvers to speak different "languages" to ease understanding and allow for varying points of view. In order to attain better insight not only into your professional experience and academic knowledge, but also your interfacing expertise, interdisciplinary skills and projects. The vertical bar must be filled with relevant information about your academic studies. In the horizontal bar, you can map competencies and activities that transcend or do not relate directly to your field of study.
Partners: Dr. Martin Aberhan (MfN), Prof. Dr. Maria Mutti (UP)
Project: Palaeobiological Extinction Selectivity of the late Permian Mass Extinction Event
Marine ecosystems are the most biologically diverse and economically important on the planet, and the increased oceanic uptake of CO2 is altering the world's sea water chemistry which is in danger of irreversibly transforming marine ecosystems into a deteriorated state. The fossil record provides the only record of long-term biotic responses from disturbances and information on ecosystem re-establishment. The main aim of this research is to investigate the ecological traits that were selected against during the late Permian mass extinction event, which occurred 252 million years ago and was caused by extreme climate warming. Exploring the direct role of deoxygenation, high sea surface temperatures, and ocean acidification in the observed extinctions. To test that any observed selectivity is not random, the extinction trends will be compared with other extinction events known to have been triggered by both similar and dissimilar mechanisms.