Paleonet: GSA Topical Session #T41: Recoveries from Mass Extinction
Peter Harries
harries at chuma.cas.usf.edu
Mon May 12 15:04:02 UTC 2008
Hello All-
Joining the flurry of GSA announcements, Richard Twitchett and I
are chairing a GSA session (T41) entitled: Recoveries from Mass
Extinction: Patterns, Processes, and Comparisons co-sponsored by the
Paleontological Society, the Gulf Coast Association of Geological
Societies and the Palaeontological Association. The impetus for this
session lies in the increasing interest in the nature of
post-mass-extinction dynamics, especially focused on the
re-establishment of 'normal' ecosystems. This proposed session is
aimed towards a broader investigation of this topic than some of the
previous GSA sessions that have tended to be more focused on either
individual events or specific phenomena associated with recovery
intervals. Given the broad interest in this topic, there has been
considerable research effort devoted to the issue throughout the
geologic time scale and the time is ripe to revisit the topic from a
more encompassing perspective. This will allow a broader view of the
data that exist from different taxonomic groups, from different mass
extinction events, and from different perspectives to be viewed in a
single forum; a forum which has not really existed since the end of
the highly successful IGCP 335. To promote a holistic approach, we
encourage a wide range of papers examining such elements as the
paleontological, lithological, and geochemical records during these
recovery intervals. Furthermore, we encourage participants to compare
and contrast similar types of records from extinction events at a
variety of temporal and geographic scales, including recent
experimental approaches, to investigate whether there are any common
trends – 'rules of recovery' - in the responses of the biosphere to
different events and forcing mechanisms.
We look forward to a lively session and remember the deadline for
abstract submission is June 3, 2008.
Sincerely, Peter Harries and Richard Twitchett
--
===================================
Peter J. Harries
Dept. of Geology
University of South Florida
4202 E. Fowler Ave, SCA 528
Tampa, FL 33620-5201
email: harries at cas.usf.edu
phone: (813) 974-4974
fax: (813) 974-2654
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