August 30, 2006 Source: :
http://www.brandonu.ca/news/article.asp?A_ID=1085 University of Saskatchewan graduate student working with BUs Dr. David Greenwood to reconstruct ancient B.C. ecosystem BRANDON, MB – On August 27, University of Saskatchewan graduate student in Environmental Science Robin Smith visited Brandon University to meet with one of her advisors, BU's Dr. David Greenwood. Though Smith commenced work on her PhD in May 2006, she has been working with Greenwood, Dr. J. Basinger of the U of Saskatchewan and several other earth scientists, paleontologists and researchers from Canada and Australia since June 2005. Their project seeks to reconstruct the environments and ecosystems that existed in southern British Columbia during the Early Eocene epoch, which took place some 50 million years ago. "Robin’s part of the project is focused on a single site near the town of Falkland, which is located between Kamloops and Kelowna," says Dr. Greenwood. "Her goal is to document the types of plants, from trees to the ferns of the ancient undergrowth, preserved as fossil leaves, fruits and flowers in ancient lake sediments at a site perched half way up a mountainside overlooking the town of Falkland, and to use this information to reconstruct the forests that surrounded this Eocene lake." Greenwood continues: "Because the lake sediments include volcanic ash beds from nearby volcanoes, and the lake sediments appear to be in the form of discrete layers, it is hoped also that she may be able to reconstruct the ecological dynamics of the forests that surrounded the lake 50 million years ago. The multiple ash beds allow very precise dating of layers within the fossil site, and offer an opportunity to detect the recovery of the lakeside forests after volcanic disturbance." Greenwood adds that the Eocene epoch represents one of the warmest periods in Earth's history, a time during which the North and South Poles were free of ice and palm trees and crocodiles could be found in southern Saskatchewan. Falkland and other southern B.C. sites were at a moderate altitude, about 1000 metres. The forests that grew around these ancient lakes were thus poised between the steamy tropical Eocene world of the coastal and interior lowlands, and a cooler upland environment that contained more familiar temperate organisms such as cedars, fir trees, pines, elms, oaks and birch trees. This type of transition zone is referred to as an ecotone by ecologists, and they typically contain mixtures of organisms from the adjoining climatic zones. It provides a window into a world much warmer than today, but also represents a place and a time that was sensitive to small changes in climate—slightly cooler conditions will push out the warm-loving plants, and slightly warmer conditions should see them return. The layer-cake character of the Falkland site can therefore be explored to discover how these ancient Early Eocene forests were responding to changes in global temperature over time. Smith was in Brandon on August 27 & 28 to meet with Dr. Greenwood and bring a collection of fossils from her study of the Falkland site that were being transferred from their former home at Harvard University in the U.S. to the new Canadian Foundation for Innovation-funded Environmental Sciences laboratory at Brandon University, which is housed in the basement of the Brodie Science Building on the BU campus. For more information, please contact: Dr. David Greenwood
Coordinator, Environmental Science
Brandon University
Phone: (204) 571-8543
Email: greenwood@brandonu.ca Kelly Stifora
Communications Officer
Brandon University
Phone: (204) 727-9762
Email: stiforak@brandonu.ca - 30 -
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