Bio-geodynamics of the Earth: State of the art and future directions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taras Gerya ◽  
Robert Stern ◽  
Loic Pellissier ◽  
Dominic Stemmler
Keyword(s):  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Marine Animal ◽  
Geodynamic Evolution ◽  
Environmental Pressures ◽  
Critical Set ◽  
Animal Diversity ◽  
Modern Style

<p>Geodynamic evolution of Earth’s mantle and lithosphere is inextricably linked to the evolution of its atmosphere, oceans, landscape and life (e.g., Stern, 2016; Pellissier et al., 2017; Zaffos et al., 2017; Zerkle. 2018). In this context, modern-style plate tectonics that was established gradually through geological time (e.g., Gerya, 2019) is often viewed as a strong promoter of biological evolution (e.g., Pellissier et al., 2017; Zerkle, 2018; Stern, 2016). The influences of this global tectono-magmatic style are at least twofold (e.g., Zerkle, 2018; Stern, 2016). Firstly, life is sustained by a critical set of elements contained within rock, ocean and atmosphere reservoirs and cycled between Earth’s surface and interior via various tectonic, magmatic and surface processes (Zerkle, 2018); plate tectonics is very effective for this recycling. Second, plate tectonics is an unparalleled agent for redistributing continents and oceans, growing mountain ranges, and forming land bridges, and provides continuous but moderate environmental pressures that isolate and stimulate populations to adapt and evolve (Stern, 2016). Importantly, modern-style plate tectonics itself exerts continuous moderate environmental pressures that drive evolution and stimulate populations to adapt and evolve without being capable of extinguishing all life (Stern 2016). The power of plate tectonics for both nutrient recycling and paleogeographic rededistributions  suggests that a planet with oceans, continents, and modern-style plate tectonics maximizes opportunities for speciation and natural selection, whereas a similar planet without plate tectonics provides fewer such opportunities (Stern, 2016).  The evolution of life must intimately reflect Earth’s tectonic evolution.</p><p>It is important to also point out that timescales of biological evolution of complex life estimated on the basis of the analysis of phylogenies and/or fossils are rather long and comparable to geodynamic timescales (e.g., Alroy, 2008; Marshall, 2017). This timescale similarity creates an opportunity for investigating lithospheric and mantle processes with life evolution by developing and testing novel hybrid bio-geodynamical numerical models. These are currently emerging. Here, we review state of the art for understanding the complex relationship between lithospheric dynamics and life evolution and present some recent examples of numerical modeling studies investigating Earth’s bio-geodynamic evolution.</p><p><strong> </strong><strong>References </strong></p><p>Alroy, J. (2008). Dynamics of origination and extinction in the marine fossil record. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 105, 11536.</p><p>Gerya, T. (2019) Geodynamics of the early Earth:  Quest for the missing paradigm. Geology, DOI:10.1130/focus-Oct2019.</p><p>Marshall, C. R. (2017). Five palaeobiological laws needed to understand the evolution of the living biota. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1(6), 0165.</p><p>Pellissier, L., Heine, C., Rosauer, D.F., Albouy, C. (2017)  Are global hotspots of endemic richness shaped by plate tectonics? Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 123 (1), 247-261.</p><p>Stern, R.J. (2016) Is plate tectonics needed to evolve technological species on exoplanets? Geoscience Frontiers, 7, 573-580.</p><p>Zaffos, A., Finnegan, S, Peters, S.E. (2017) Plate tectonic regulation of global marine animal diversity. PNAS, 114, 5653–5658.</p><p>Zerkle A. L. (2018) Biogeodynamics: bridging the gap between surface and deep Earth processes. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A 376, 20170401. (doi:10.1098/rsta.2017.0401)</p>

scholarly journals Plate tectonic regulation of global marine animal diversity

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (22) ◽  
pp. 5653-5658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Zaffos ◽  
Seth Finnegan ◽  
Shanan E. Peters
Keyword(s):  
Continental Crust ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Marine Invertebrate ◽  
The State ◽  
Causal Mechanism ◽  
Sampling Effort ◽  
Marine Animal ◽  
Positive Correlation ◽  
Animal Diversity ◽  
Global Biodiversity

Valentine and Moores [Valentine JW, Moores EM (1970) Nature 228:657–659] hypothesized that plate tectonics regulates global biodiversity by changing the geographic arrangement of continental crust, but the data required to fully test the hypothesis were not available. Here, we use a global database of marine animal fossil occurrences and a paleogeographic reconstruction model to test the hypothesis that temporal patterns of continental fragmentation have impacted global Phanerozoic biodiversity. We find a positive correlation between global marine invertebrate genus richness and an independently derived quantitative index describing the fragmentation of continental crust during supercontinental coalescence–breakup cycles. The observed positive correlation between global biodiversity and continental fragmentation is not readily attributable to commonly cited vagaries of the fossil record, including changing quantities of marine rock or time-variable sampling effort. Because many different environmental and biotic factors may covary with changes in the geographic arrangement of continental crust, it is difficult to identify a specific causal mechanism. However, cross-correlation indicates that the state of continental fragmentation at a given time is positively correlated with the state of global biodiversity for tens of millions of years afterward. There is also evidence to suggest that continental fragmentation promotes increasing marine richness, but that coalescence alone has only a small negative or stabilizing effect. Together, these results suggest that continental fragmentation, particularly during the Mesozoic breakup of the supercontinent Pangaea, has exerted a first-order control on the long-term trajectory of Phanerozoic marine animal diversity.

An Analysis of the History of Marine Animal Diversity

Paleobiology ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 33 (sp6) ◽  
pp. 1-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven M. Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Marine Animal ◽  
Animal Diversity ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Numerical models of slab migration in continental collision zones

Solid Earth ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 293-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Magni ◽  
J. van Hunen ◽  
F. Funiciello ◽  
C. Faccenna
Keyword(s):  
Subduction Zone ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Continental Collision ◽  
Force Balance ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Dip Angle ◽  
External Forces ◽  
Stress Dependent ◽  
Subduction System

Abstract. Continental collision is an intrinsic feature of plate tectonics. The closure of an oceanic basin leads to the onset of subduction of buoyant continental material, which slows down and eventually stops the subduction process. In natural cases, evidence of advancing margins has been recognized in continental collision zones such as India-Eurasia and Arabia-Eurasia. We perform a parametric study of the geometrical and rheological influence on subduction dynamics during the subduction of continental lithosphere. In our 2-D numerical models of a free subduction system with temperature and stress-dependent rheology, the trench and the overriding plate move self-consistently as a function of the dynamics of the system (i.e. no external forces are imposed). This setup enables to study how continental subduction influences the trench migration. We found that in all models the slab starts to advance once the continent enters the subduction zone and continues to migrate until few million years after the ultimate slab detachment. Our results support the idea that the advancing mode is favoured and, in part, provided by the intrinsic force balance of continental collision. We suggest that the advance is first induced by the locking of the subduction zone and the subsequent steepening of the slab, and next by the sinking of the deepest oceanic part of the slab, during stretching and break-off of the slab. These processes are responsible for the migration of the subduction zone by triggering small-scale convection cells in the mantle that, in turn, drag the plates. The amount of advance ranges from 40 to 220 km and depends on the dip angle of the slab before the onset of collision.

scholarly journals Towards community-driven paleogeographic reconstructions: integrating open-access paleogeographic and paleobiology data with plate tectonics

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1529-1541 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Wright ◽  
S. Zahirovic ◽  
R. D. Müller ◽  
M. Seton
Keyword(s):  
Ocean Circulation ◽  
Plate Tectonics ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Plate Motion ◽  
Temporal Data Mining ◽  
Dynamic Topography ◽  
Southeastern Australia ◽  
Eastern Australia ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Fossil Data

Abstract. A variety of paleogeographic reconstructions have been published, with applications ranging from paleoclimate, ocean circulation and faunal radiation models to resource exploration; yet their uncertainties remain difficult to assess as they are generally presented as low-resolution static maps. We present a methodology for ground-truthing the digital Palaeogeographic Atlas of Australia by linking the GPlates plate reconstruction tool to the global Paleobiology Database and a Phanerozoic plate motion model. We develop a spatio-temporal data mining workflow to validate the Phanerozoic Palaeogeographic Atlas of Australia with paleoenvironments derived from fossil data. While there is general agreement between fossil data and the paleogeographic model, the methodology highlights key inconsistencies. The Early Devonian paleogeographic model of southeastern Australia insufficiently describes the Emsian inundation that may be refined using biofacies distributions. Additionally, the paleogeographic model and fossil data can be used to strengthen numerical models, such as the dynamic topography and the associated inundation of eastern Australia during the Cretaceous. Although paleobiology data provide constraints only for paleoenvironments with high preservation potential of organisms, our approach enables the use of additional proxy data to generate improved paleogeographic reconstructions.

scholarly journals A Review of Hydraulic Fracturing Simulation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Chen ◽  
Beatriz Ramos Barboza ◽  
Yanan Sun ◽  
Jie Bai ◽  
Hywel R Thomas ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Fracturing ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Gas Production ◽  
Physical Processes ◽  
Horizontal Drilling ◽  
Improve Treatment ◽  
Multi Stage ◽  
Pros And Cons ◽  
Treatment Designs

AbstractAlong with horizontal drilling techniques, multi-stage hydraulic fracturing has improved shale gas production significantly in past decades. In order to understand the mechanism of hydraulic fracturing and improve treatment designs, it is critical to conduct modelling to predict stimulated fractures. In this paper, related physical processes in hydraulic fracturing are firstly discussed and their effects on hydraulic fracturing processes are analysed. Then historical and state of the art numerical models for hydraulic fracturing are reviewed, to highlight the pros and cons of different numerical methods. Next, commercially available software for hydraulic fracturing design are discussed and key features are summarised. Finally, we draw conclusions from the previous discussions in relation to physics, method and applications and provide recommendations for further research.

Macroevolution and megaclimate: revealing the domains of the Court Jester and biotic equilibration

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrej Spiridonov ◽  
Shaun Lovejoy
Keyword(s):  
Time Scales ◽  
Biotic Interactions ◽  
Marine Animal ◽  
Scaling Exponent ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
Red Queen ◽  
Multi Scale ◽  
Random Forces ◽  
Scale Temperature ◽  
Animal Diversity

<p>The fundamental question of the biodiversity dynamics field is whether global diversity of organisms is driven by multiple random forces resulting in unsteady pattern or is it constrained by sufficiently strong biotic interactions. The first set of hypotheses is combined under the umbrella of the “Court Jester”, reflecting non-steady nature of the process. The latter set of hypotheses is sometimes combined under the header of the “Red Queen”, an epitomization of perpetual change at constant equilibrium diversity level. Based on the Haar fluctuation analyses of the classical Sepkoski database and Paleobiology Database occurrence based biodiversity data, it was revealed that both datasets show that marine animal genus level diversity is characterized by the two regimes.  The first, up to time scales of 30 to 40 Myrs, has a positive scaling exponent implying that fluctuations diverging with time scale i.e. behaviour like the Court Jester that is apparently unstable. The second regime, at longer time scales has a negative fluctuation exponent so that on average anomalies converge, the system is appears stable: a biodiversity regulating Red Queen regime. The smaller scale diverging regime (unstable) is characterized by nearly the same scaling exponent as megaclimate paleotemperatures, suggests a causal connection with diversity.</p><p>To investigate this further, we use a new multi-scale Haar fluctuation correlation analysis to quantify the scale by scale correlations.   We found a persistent trend of increasing correlation of macroevolutionary rates with the surface water temperatures with increasing time scales. At the same time, the diversity shows increasingly negative correlations with the temperatures at longer time scales, which suggest that positive largest scale temperature fluctuations although increased biotic turnover had a regulating effect on the global marine animal diversity levels.</p><p>Based on the consideration of dominant processes at the longest time scales we propose that the equilibration of biota is a result of continuous geodispersal and consequently mixing and competition of regional biotas, which becomes increasingly more likely on the deca-million-year time scales.</p><p>We conclude that the Earth system processes play a significant role in driving both diverging and equilibrating global biodiversity regimes: both Court Jester and Red Queen regimes may operate, with the former dominant up to ≈ 40 Myrs, and the latter at longer time scales.</p>

scholarly journals BP Neural Network Could Help Improve Pre-miRNA Identification in Various Species

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Limin Jiang ◽  
Jingjun Zhang ◽  
Ping Xuan ◽  
Quan Zou
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Bp Neural Network ◽  
Regulatory Network ◽  
Bioinformatics Analysis ◽  
Biological Function ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Noncoding Rnas ◽  
The Past ◽  
Mirna Identification

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a set of short (21–24 nt) noncoding RNAs that play significant regulatory roles in cells. In the past few years, research on miRNA-related problems has become a hot field of bioinformatics because of miRNAs’ essential biological function. miRNA-related bioinformatics analysis is beneficial in several aspects, including the functions of miRNAs and other genes, the regulatory network between miRNAs and their target mRNAs, and even biological evolution. Distinguishing miRNA precursors from other hairpin-like sequences is important and is an essential procedure in detecting novel microRNAs. In this study, we employed backpropagation (BP) neural network together with 98-dimensional novel features for microRNA precursor identification. Results show that the precision and recall of our method are 95.53% and 96.67%, respectively. Results further demonstrate that the total prediction accuracy of our method is nearly 13.17% greater than the state-of-the-art microRNA precursor prediction software tools.

scholarly journals Special Issue: Probabilistic Mechanical Fatigue and Fracture of Materials

Materials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4901
Author(s):  
Miguel Muñiz-Calvente ◽  
Alfonso Fernández-Canteli
Keyword(s):  
Material Characterization ◽  
Structural Integrity ◽  
State Of The Art ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Damage Models ◽  
Mechanical Fatigue ◽  
Future State ◽  
Fatigue And Fracture ◽  
Fracture Of Materials

When designing structural and mechanical components, general structural integrity criteria must be met in order to ensure a valid performance according to its designed function, that is, supporting loads or resisting any kind of action causing stress and strains to the material without catastrophic failure. For these reasons, the development of solutions to manage the test conditions, failure mechanism, damage evolution, component functionalities and loading types should be implemented. The aim of this Special Issue “Probabilistic Mechanical Fatigue and Fracture of Materials” is to contribute to updating current and future state-of-the-art methodologies that promote an objective material characterization and the development of advanced damage models that ensure a feasible transferability from the experimental results to the design of real components. This is imbricated in some probabilistic background related to theoretical and applied fracture and fatigue theories, and advanced numerical models applied to some real application examples.

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