This grant supports a workshop organized around the themes identified by the broader Earth sciences community at several professional meetings during the fall of 2010. The Deep Time Earth-Life Observatory Network (DETELON) workshop will provide a broad community-based platform to develop the concept of an Observatory Network as an initiative for the paleontological and the broader soft-rock geological community.
The workshop will craft a white paper around themes identified by forums and by an Executive Committee. The Executive Committee, aided by particularly active workshop participants, will turn this white paper into a preliminary science plan. Finally, this preliminary science plan will be placed on-line for a period of public comment, and these comments will be used to finalize an official Science Plan for DETELON by the Executive Committee. This final science plan will be presented to NSF and to other potential funding sources by May 2011.
Today our society and our planet face unparalleled environmental and ecosystem pressures, and we may be heading toward global conditions that are quite unlike anything experienced in human history. Numerous non-analog conditions relevant for understanding possible future states of the planet are recorded in the deep, pre-Quaternary history of the Earth: the past is our window to the future. Understanding these planetary states requires seamless integration of paleontological, geochemical, biological, stratigraphic and other data into a highly resolved temporal and spatial framework that allows development and testing of quantitative models. The most important problems facing the Earth sciences today are centered around complex, multi-faceted systems that can only be approached by interdisciplinary teams of scientists using the best available technology. Such team-based activities will provide numerous opportunities for research training and experience in forefront areas of science, particularly for the growing number of women and other under-represented groups that are currently entering the Earth sciences.
Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history provides natural observatories in which to explore critical questions about the processes that impact the biota, the global environment, and climate. Studies in deep time provide a unique perspective on the processes driving the Earth-Life system that cannot be studied in the present or in recent history. The Earth is predicted to transition from an icehouse to a greenhouse climate state by 2100. Only through studies of the Earth-Life system in deep time will society gain an understanding of the effects of the climate of 2100 on life and how life will transition to these conditions. In response to the need for these societally critical deep time analyses the Paleontological Society, in conjunction with other paleontological organizations, has organized two recent workshops to develop the concept of a Deep Time Earth-Life Observatory Network (DETELON), a program designed to address these problems in a coordinated fashion. Building off the success of the Long-Term Ecological Research Network, and similar efforts, the Deep Time Earth-Life Observatory Network (DETELON) is proposed as a program that would allow focused efforts by teams of scientists to increase the pace towards solution of highly significant problems for society within a systems framework. This document, the product of a February 2-4, 2011 DETELON workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation, constitutes the proposed Science Plan for DETELON. The DETELON program will address four grand challenges arising from the need to anticipate the evolving state of the Earth in 2100 and beyond. The focused efforts of cross-disciplinary teams will provide significant new insight into the dynamics of the Earth-Life system. The four DETELON grand challenges are: 1) how do physical and geochemical conditions change for biological systems during and after the transition to a greenhouse world; 2) how do greenhouse worlds accommodate biodiversity; 3) how resilient are ecosystems to the forces of ongoing and predicted environmental change; and 4) how do biota react when confronted by new physical, biological and climatic conditions? Each DETELON observatory would involve integrated teams of 10-20 paleontologists, sedimentologists, geochemists, stratigraphers, geochronologists, paleoclimatologists, modelers and other geoscientists focusing on questions of significant aspects of the four grand challenges. Each observatory would last for 5-10 years (an initial 5 year grant followed by a possible renewal). Projects would need to integrate existing data sets, develop quantitative, process-based models, as well as plan coordinated field work and analyses. DETELON projects would provide significant opportunities for junior faculty and post-doctoral scholars and include joint training of graduate students. In addition, such projects present significant opportunities for education and outreach. The public is fascinated with fossils and the history of life on Earth. DETELON provides a structure to tease out the details of past landscapes, ecosystems, and the abrupt events that have shaped the evolution of life on our planet. The ‘observatory’ component of DETELON can be amplified by scientists working in natural field laboratories, providing an excellent opportunity to engage the public in observing scientists at work and to participate in the process of science and the excitement of discovery. The DETELON concept has been synthesized with the TRANSITIONS initiative to foster initiation of the Earth Life Transitions funding initiative at NSF. The DETELON approach has received an enthusiastic response from the international Deep Time research community, particularly at the Sino-US Critical Transitions Workshop held in the summer of 2013 in Kunming, China.
