Alejandra Pagani, PhD, (CONICET-MEF), is part of a Research Team that has been working since 2010 and has recently got financing by the National Sciences Foundation to develop a Research and Mentoring Project named LATE PALEOZOIC GONDWANAN ECOSYSTEMS. The greatest importance of this matter is that it will be entirely developed in Argentina.
This Project proposes a multi-faceted, field-based program of research and mentorship to undertake works on the paleogeography and paleoecology of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age (LPIA) in West Gondwana (current Argentina). The LPIA was one of Earth’s most dynamic climatic events: it was the longest, most widespread glacial interval of the Phanerozoic, and it is linked to fluctuations in climate regimes, changes in sea levels, and floral and faunal composition during the Carboniferous and Permian (360 – 250 million years ago). The objective of this proposal is to bring together a group of diverse geoscientists and students to examine the sedimentological, paleoclimatic and paleoecological aspects of key sites for that period in that particular zone.
The rationale for creating this research and mentoring program is that a series of didactic field experiences for students closely integrated with the PIs’ research will lead to improved understanding and appreciation of environmental change and evolution among aspiring geoscientists; it is to remark of fundamental importance to establish a deep-time perspective on changing paleoecosystems to predict future perturbations in global systems. Researchers who are working along with Alejandra Pagani are: John Isbell, PhD, Margaret Fraiser, PhD, and Erik Gulbranson, PhD, with the Department of Geosciences (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee-USA); Arturo Taboada, PhD (CIEMEP-Esquel- Argentina); Oscar Limarino, PhD and Patricia Ciccioli, PhD, with IGEBA (UBA- Argentina).
