Shuhai Xiao
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, VA·Earth & Environmental Science
For most of Earth's history the oceans were dominated by bacteria. Then, roughly a billion years ago, complex cells with nuclei, the eukaryotes that include algae, fungi and animals, began to diversify and take over ecological roles.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Ecology & Evolution
Biology
- Topics
Proterozoic
Tonian Period
eukaryotes
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2030
What they work on
- Test whether increasing availability of marine nutrients such as nitrate and phosphate in Tonian oceans drove the diversification and ecological rise of eukaryotes, organisms whose cells contain nuclei.
- Collect and integrate paleontological, geochemical, sedimentological and stratigraphic data from early Tonian strata in North China and late Tonian strata in the Grand Canyon of Arizona.
- Reconstruct both taxonomic and functional biodiversity of Tonian eukaryotes from the fossil record to track how ecological roles shifted from a prokaryote-dominated ocean.
- Combine field records with global compilations and an Earth system model to reconstruct nutrient availability and marine geochemical cycles and evaluate feedbacks with biodiversity.
More about the research
Why that happened is still open. This project tests whether a rise in marine nutrients, chiefly nitrate and phosphate, fueled that expansion during the Tonian Period, 1000 to 720 million years ago, and whether the resulting eukaryotes in turn reshaped ocean chemistry and ecosystems.
Why it matters
Reconstructing how nutrient supply and biological diversity influenced one another during a major turning point in Earth history gives a long-term baseline for how marine ecosystems respond to shifting nutrients. That record could inform expectations about the ecological resilience of present and future oceans, and the project also builds research partnerships between the National Park System and universities.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jonathan Payne
Stanford University, CA·Ecology & Evolution
Extend a standardized database of marine animal body size measurements spanning the last 575 million years, incorporating previously unpublished Ediacaran body-size data from the interval preceding the main animal fossil record.
Philip Novack-Gottshall
Benedictine University, IL·Ecology & Evolution
Test four hypotheses about how ecological diversity differs among marine animal phyla and classes and through Phanerozoic time, using a quantitative life-habit database covering all known marine animal genera.
Clara Blattler
University of Chicago, IL·Earth & Environmental Science·Early-career
Test hypotheses about the size and meaning of the Great Oxidation Event and the Lomagundi-Jatuli Event, using Paleoproterozoic carbonate rocks drilled in Fennoscandia in 2007.
The school
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University: 35 labs on PI Pages, $657M a year on research, 496 research doctorates a year.
More about Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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