PI requests funds archive her lakes through time database in two NSF supported database efforts, Paleostrat and Paleobiology Database. The nature and scope of this data will allow many questions key to the history of life to be addressed, including: 1) how does lake faunal diversity in the Paleozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras compare with the biodiversity patterns from the marine realm? 2) do lake faunas follow the logistic, additive or exponential model of diversification? 3) what happened in lakes during mass extinction events such as those found at the Permian/Triassic or Cretaceous/Tertiary boundaries? Since most modern diversity is found today in continental environments, answering these and other questions will allow the community to better understand modern biodiversity and how it might be impacted by climate change and other anthropogenically-driven change. The database has the potential to revolutionize how we look at the history of life on Earth and it will catalyze advances in our understanding of biological evolution as a whole. Therefore this request satisfies at least one of the five criteria for awarding a SGER.
