Over the past few decades it has become apparent that many very significant scientific problems are best addressed by teams of collaborating scientists representing a wide range of expertise. Indeed, progress in many issues can be achieved in no other way. Major advances in understanding critical transitions in the history of life require integration of paleontological, geochemical, biological, stratigraphic and other information into a temporal and spatial framework. Only within such a framework can the community understand the processes that have driven such transitions in the biosphere. In response to these changes in the nature of scientific inquiry, the Paleontological Society in conjunction with other paleontological groups, proposes to organize a workshop accompanied by a series of research forums to develop the concept of Deep Time Earth-Life Observatories (DETELOs), a new concept that emerged from a recent community workshop on Future Research Directions in Paleontology (FRDP). In the past, the development of integrated datasets and associated analyses has occurred in an uncoordinated and often haphazard fashion. As a result many critical questions remain unresolved, and we have little knowledge of the underlying process of biotic diversification or diversity loss, in part because of a lack of quantitative models with testable predictions. DETELOs are designed to address these problems in a coordinated fashion. This new workshop will include 22 participants, and is scheduled for 23-25 April, 2010 at the Department of Paleobiology of the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution). The results of the workshop will be discussed with the broader paleontological community at Geological Society of America Annual Meetings in Denver (November, 2010) and Minneapolis (October, 2011). The final product of this effort will be a document of 10- 20 pages.
In response to the need to address key issues of societal importance caused by fundamental environmental change, the Paleontological Society, in conjunction with other paleontological organizations, organized a workshop to develop the concept of a Deep Time Earth-Life Observatory Network (DETELON), an idea that emerged from a recent community workshop on Future Research Directions in Paleontology (FRDP). DETELON is designed as a program to address integrative problems of Earth history in a coordinated fashion to provide better tools towards predicting the behavior of the Earth-Life system. This workshop included 22 participants, and was held 23-25 April, 2010 at the Department of Paleobiology of the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution). To further develop the DETELON concept into an active program, the workshop partcipants and leadership proposed the following: First, in the following months, an Executive Committee for DETELON will be developed. This committee will be in charge of program planning for public discussion sessions and national meetings as well as planning the larger program. This committee has been developed and is currently active. Second, the results of the workshop will be discussed in Town Hall meetings with the broader paleontological community at the 2010 meetings of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (October; Pittsburgh), the Geological Society of America (October; Denver), and the American Geophysical Union (December; San Francisco). These Town Hall meetings were successfully held. Third, in January of 2011 we propose to hold an NSF-funded public workshop organized around the themes identified in these public forums. This public workshop would be advertised and funding made available for a broad assortment of participants including applicants from diverse expertise and career stage. The public workshop would craft a "white paper" around themes identified by the forums and the Executive Committee. Meeting participants could also bring new ideas to the planning workshop. This workshop, funded by NSF, was successfully held in January, 2011. In the fourth stage, the Executive Committee would meet again and aided by particularly active workshop participants would turn this "white paper" into a preliminary science plan. This "white paper" was produced in the spring of 2011. Finally, in a fifth stage, this preliminary science plan would be placed on-line for a period of public comment and these comments would be used to finalize an official Science Plan for DETELON by the Executive Committee by summer 2011. This final science plan would be presented to NSF with the goal of obtaining funding for the DETELON program. This final Science Plan for DETELON was completed in the summer of 2011 and is currently under discussion for implementation at NSF.
