4/12/2018

Fate of the Permian Sea Floor

I am a true believer that all things happen for a reason; synchronicity.

I was very fortunate to have an awesome opportunity to have a private tour of the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve with Brian Obermeyer from The Nature Conservancy and Kristen Hase from the National Park Service. Brian’s research background involved freshwater mussels. He stated that North America is a “hotspot” of diversity for freshwater mussels, due in part by isolated environments that promoted their diversity. This theory is supported by phylogenetic analysis, and I think it will be of interest if I can do something similar using corals.

Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve is located in one of the least populated counties in Kansas, but it seems that this place shows the most abundant information to geochemists. This preserve is about 11,000 acres in size. Some of my friends tell me that it is too bad that Kansas is so far from the ocean, but indeed this area used to be the ocean 200-300 million years ago. It is quite astonishing to think that there is now an enormous prairie thriving over the Permian sea floor. During the tour, we saw a prairie chicken flying super fast. Wild chickens (grouse) flying gracefully over a paleo-ocean!

Until I came to Kansas, I was quite ignorant about the tallgrass prairie ecosystem, which has a unique mixture of environmental management practices and stunning paleo scenic views. I learned that the prairie is maintained by deliberate controlled fires when all the environmental factors such as wind conditions and humidity are reasonable (generally once every three years in the spring). Without these fires the region would turn into a woodland since it has enough precipitation for it (about 32 inches/year).

We may think that deliberate fire can hurt the ecosystem, but it is actually the opposite. Some non-native plant species were brought to this area for erosion control, but fire prevents some of these invasive species from growing. Also, bison (the preserve has about 100 animals) and cattle prefer to graze grass that has recently been burned. It is also quite interesting to see the calcium carbonate outcrops made from invertebrates in the same area. Brian showed me some limestone rocks filled with fossil shells. Also Kristen kindly provided a technical report that explain 12 geologic formations at the preserve, which I need to study. It looks like I found a hotspot for our lab’s interest too.

Thank you again Brian and Kristen for all the kindness and showing me around. I love and enjoy being connected through science and I hope I can make lots of significant positive impacts and exciting discoveries in the world. I recon these are the ultimate goals of being a scientist.

Kristen and Byson

Lots of shell fossils!

Kristen and Brian

We had prairie burgers