Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TERRAFORM (The evolution of land plant functional traits and how they terraformed Earth)
Période du rapport: 2021-10-01 au 2023-03-31
In the TERRAFORM project, we are integrating novel approaches in trait ecology for extinct plants, state-of-the-art weathering experiments, and multi-scale modelling to study the terrestrial biosphere’s impact on the carbon, nutrient and hydrological cycles in deep-time. The resulting knowledge will improve our understanding of chemical weathering by plants, as correlated with plant traits, and improve the performance of biogeochemical models, to evaluate the plant feedback on other components of the Earth system. Ultimately, these efforts will clarify the processes over the past 300 million years that lead to our habitable planet and how they may change in the future.
October 2021 – September 2022
• Work began to investigate the feasibility of applying paleo-traits to Devonian plant fossils (Jackson). The preliminary results of the new Devonian CO2 estimates were presented at an international conference 11th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference, Stockholm 19-22 June 2022 (poster "Reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 concentration during the Devonian using fossil plant traits”) and during the TCD Botany-Zoology Postgraduate Research Symposium, 10th of June 2022 (Jackson).
• The CO2 Proxy Integration Project (CO2-PIP) workshop in Tahoe,California attended by McElwain (4-7 June 2022), to actively contribute to the CO2-PIP project.
• McElwain presented a keynote presentation at the 11th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference, Stockholm 19-22 June 2022 ‘Using paleotraits to map ecosystem function and earth system processes in deep time’.
• Recruitment of the team and communication with TCD HR. The candidates were interviewed online & formed the research team by November 2022 (Kwasniewska & McElwain).
• Weekly meetings commenced for the entire team in November 2022 and data exchange/discussion were chaired by McElwain.
October 2022 – December 2022
• The entire research team worked on a structured literature review on ‘Fossil Plant Traits in Palaeobotany and Palynology’ to be submitted as an invited Tansley Review to New Phytologist in July 2023.
• Curation of an extensive Triassic-Jurassic fossil collection from Greenland (Knetge and Barbosa, O’Dea) was undertaken.
• Preparation and set up of the Variable Atmosphere and Light Laboratory and communication with the Conviron team (O’Dea and Chondrogiannis).
• Handheld X-Ray Fluorescence analyser tender documents preparation and communication with the Procurement Office (Kwasniewska).
• Curation and accessioning of herbarium specimens to TCD Herbarium from the year one monitoring at TCD Botanic Garden (Yajima).
• Weekly meetings & individual meetings with Post-docs, PhDs and RAs regarding experimental data/results/analysis were held on a case-by-case basis. Additional team-organized discussion meetings were held weekly.
January 2023 – March 2023
• Sinead McDonald, Artist in residence joins the team. Meeting with the Research Team to understand the scope of the project and how the art can advance understanding of Earth systems and weathering processes.
• Best practices in FAIR research principles and data management were comprehensively assessed to ensure the long-term reproducibility of lab and field protocols developed by members of the TERRAFORM team (led by Yajima). An example protocol was publication of “Trinity College Botanic Garden long-term monitoring program” (Yajima & McElwain) which will be the model adopted for all novel protocols in the TERRAFORM team.
• Participation (Mattheaus, Barbosa, Knetge, Chondrogiannis, Jackson,Yajima & McElwain) in the 4th Ecology and Evolution Ireland meeting, 5-6 January 2023 and mentoring event.
• Presentation of keynote talk by McElwain in the 4th Ecology and Evolution Ireland meeting, 5-6 January 2023.
• Organisation (O’Dea) and participation of the entire team in specialized HR chemical health and safety training.
• Organisation (Jackson) & oral presentation (Knetge) “Can traits show abiotic stress in Mesozoic Flora?” during the TCD Botany-Zoology Postgraduate Research Symposium, 2-3 March 2023.
• Poster presentation “TERRAFROM: Trait Ecology & Biogeochemical Cycles in Deep Time (Mattheaus, Barbosa, Knetge, Chondrogiannis) and oral presentation “Estimating Devonian paleo-atmospheric CO2 concentrations using fossil plant traits” (Jackson) during the 66th Irish Geological Research Meeting, Belfast on the 4th March 2023.
• Entire team completed Epigeum Research Integrity Training.
• Online Training- Introduction to Radiation Safety completed by Barbosa, Knetge, Jackson, O’Dea and Chondrogiannis.
• Weekly meetings & data discussion were chaired by McElwain. Individual meetings with Post-docs, PhDs and RA's regarding data/results/analysis were held on a case-by-case basis. Informal team discussion meetings continued.
• Work began to investigate the feasibility of applying paleo-traits to Devonian plant fossils (Jackson). The preliminary results of the new Devonian CO2 estimates were presented at an international conference 11th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference, Stockholm 19-22 June 2022 (poster "Reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 concentration during the Devonian using fossil plant traits”) and during the TCD Botany-Zoology Postgraduate Research Symposium, 10th of June 2022 (Jackson).
• The CO2 Proxy Integration Project (CO2-PIP) workshop in Tahoe,California attended by McElwain (4-7 June 2022), to actively contribute to the CO2-PIP project.
• McElwain presented a keynote presentation at the 11th European Palaeobotany and Palynology Conference, Stockholm 19-22 June 2022 ‘Using paleotraits to map ecosystem function and earth system processes in deep time’.
• Recruitment of the team and communication with TCD HR. The candidates were interviewed online & formed the research team by November 2022 (Kwasniewska & McElwain).
• Weekly meetings commenced for the entire team in November 2022 and data exchange/discussion were chaired by McElwain.
October 2022 – December 2022
• The entire research team worked on a structured literature review on ‘Fossil Plant Traits in Palaeobotany and Palynology’ to be submitted as an invited Tansley Review to New Phytologist in July 2023.
• Curation of an extensive Triassic-Jurassic fossil collection from Greenland (Knetge and Barbosa, O’Dea) was undertaken.
• Preparation and set up of the Variable Atmosphere and Light Laboratory and communication with the Conviron team (O’Dea and Chondrogiannis).
• Handheld X-Ray Fluorescence analyser tender documents preparation and communication with the Procurement Office (Kwasniewska).
• Curation and accessioning of herbarium specimens to TCD Herbarium from the year one monitoring at TCD Botanic Garden (Yajima).
• Weekly meetings & individual meetings with Post-docs, PhDs and RAs regarding experimental data/results/analysis were held on a case-by-case basis. Additional team-organized discussion meetings were held weekly.
January 2023 – March 2023
• Sinead McDonald, Artist in residence joins the team. Meeting with the Research Team to understand the scope of the project and how the art can advance understanding of Earth systems and weathering processes.
• Best practices in FAIR research principles and data management were comprehensively assessed to ensure the long-term reproducibility of lab and field protocols developed by members of the TERRAFORM team (led by Yajima). An example protocol was publication of “Trinity College Botanic Garden long-term monitoring program” (Yajima & McElwain) which will be the model adopted for all novel protocols in the TERRAFORM team.
• Participation (Mattheaus, Barbosa, Knetge, Chondrogiannis, Jackson,Yajima & McElwain) in the 4th Ecology and Evolution Ireland meeting, 5-6 January 2023 and mentoring event.
• Presentation of keynote talk by McElwain in the 4th Ecology and Evolution Ireland meeting, 5-6 January 2023.
• Organisation (O’Dea) and participation of the entire team in specialized HR chemical health and safety training.
• Organisation (Jackson) & oral presentation (Knetge) “Can traits show abiotic stress in Mesozoic Flora?” during the TCD Botany-Zoology Postgraduate Research Symposium, 2-3 March 2023.
• Poster presentation “TERRAFROM: Trait Ecology & Biogeochemical Cycles in Deep Time (Mattheaus, Barbosa, Knetge, Chondrogiannis) and oral presentation “Estimating Devonian paleo-atmospheric CO2 concentrations using fossil plant traits” (Jackson) during the 66th Irish Geological Research Meeting, Belfast on the 4th March 2023.
• Entire team completed Epigeum Research Integrity Training.
• Online Training- Introduction to Radiation Safety completed by Barbosa, Knetge, Jackson, O’Dea and Chondrogiannis.
• Weekly meetings & data discussion were chaired by McElwain. Individual meetings with Post-docs, PhDs and RA's regarding data/results/analysis were held on a case-by-case basis. Informal team discussion meetings continued.
WP1
Started; 75% Complete; On schedule
A literature review revised modern plant traits from the plant trait handbook and from the TRY-Plant Trait Database. The entire research team contributed to researching literature, writing and editing the manuscript, and conceptualizing and drafting summary figures.
WP2
Started; 25% Complete; On Schedule
Fossil curation and preparation work for the plant paleo-ionome focused on the Triassic-Jurassic fossil collection from Greenland. The curation of fossil collection involved numbering, boxing, photographing, and database logging all field-collected specimens.
WP3
Started; 20% Complete; On Schedule
McElwain’s lab at Trinity College contains a substantial collection of dried archived plant material from previous published ERC-funded (Oxyevol) and collaborative projects (Futu-Rye). The dried plant material was collected and archived from different evolutionary plant groups and lifeforms grown under highly divergent paleo-atmospheric conditions. All former experimental plant material in the lab has been inventoried, and organized and a priority list determined for XRF analysis.
WP4
Started; 15% Complete; Behind Schedule
Due to a legacy of COVID effects on the supply chain of working parts and maintenance timelines and due to BREXIT custom-related issues on supply chain between UK and Ireland, the final commissioning of the state-of-the-art CONVIRON climate-controlled and variable light chambers, the team have been delayed with the implementation of the weathering experiments. However, our team has established a collaboration team at University College Dublin to evaluate the importance of enhanced weathering.
WP5
Started; 15% Complete; Behind Schedule
As this work package is highly dependent on the WP4, which has been delayed, the work on the decomposition experiments has not commenced yet. The team focused on the archived leaf and stem material from previous ERC-funded (OXYEVOL) paleoatmosphere simulation experiments, assigning suitable leaf and stem material for analysis, to investigate the effects of atmospheric composition on decomposition rate.
WP6
Started; 35% Complete; On schedule
Investigated methods for integrating trait-based model representations of extinct and extant plants with hydrology and reactive transport to model plant impacts at the mesocosm to watershed scale. Completed a model update for the ecosystem-process model Paleo-BGC to allow global-scale parameterized simulations. Performed simulations of the weathering-relevant plant and ecosystem processes for four Carboniferous-Permian dominant plant types.
Started; 75% Complete; On schedule
A literature review revised modern plant traits from the plant trait handbook and from the TRY-Plant Trait Database. The entire research team contributed to researching literature, writing and editing the manuscript, and conceptualizing and drafting summary figures.
WP2
Started; 25% Complete; On Schedule
Fossil curation and preparation work for the plant paleo-ionome focused on the Triassic-Jurassic fossil collection from Greenland. The curation of fossil collection involved numbering, boxing, photographing, and database logging all field-collected specimens.
WP3
Started; 20% Complete; On Schedule
McElwain’s lab at Trinity College contains a substantial collection of dried archived plant material from previous published ERC-funded (Oxyevol) and collaborative projects (Futu-Rye). The dried plant material was collected and archived from different evolutionary plant groups and lifeforms grown under highly divergent paleo-atmospheric conditions. All former experimental plant material in the lab has been inventoried, and organized and a priority list determined for XRF analysis.
WP4
Started; 15% Complete; Behind Schedule
Due to a legacy of COVID effects on the supply chain of working parts and maintenance timelines and due to BREXIT custom-related issues on supply chain between UK and Ireland, the final commissioning of the state-of-the-art CONVIRON climate-controlled and variable light chambers, the team have been delayed with the implementation of the weathering experiments. However, our team has established a collaboration team at University College Dublin to evaluate the importance of enhanced weathering.
WP5
Started; 15% Complete; Behind Schedule
As this work package is highly dependent on the WP4, which has been delayed, the work on the decomposition experiments has not commenced yet. The team focused on the archived leaf and stem material from previous ERC-funded (OXYEVOL) paleoatmosphere simulation experiments, assigning suitable leaf and stem material for analysis, to investigate the effects of atmospheric composition on decomposition rate.
WP6
Started; 35% Complete; On schedule
Investigated methods for integrating trait-based model representations of extinct and extant plants with hydrology and reactive transport to model plant impacts at the mesocosm to watershed scale. Completed a model update for the ecosystem-process model Paleo-BGC to allow global-scale parameterized simulations. Performed simulations of the weathering-relevant plant and ecosystem processes for four Carboniferous-Permian dominant plant types.