Findings and Recommendations - New Research Opportunities in the Earth Sciences - page 96

historical information of evolutionary relationships and gene products extending from
the present to the origin of life itself. Coupled with geologically derived
environmental information, this new source of deep-time information is bringing
about profound changes in our understanding of the history of life on Earth and its
origin and biogeochemical consequences. Enabling further application of genomic
and proteomics methods that address deep-time origins of environmentally important
clades and physiologies in conjunction with studies of environmental and climate
proxies in deep time is a major opportunity for future research.
Finding 4: Sampling at appropriate spatial and temporal scales will require new
continental coring and continued ocean drilling. This is a limiting factor in fully
developing the deep-time archive of past climates and the co-evolution mechanisms
operating through time. Drilling availability is limiting progress.
Recommendation: EAR should develop a mechanism to enable team-based
interdisciplinary science-driven projects involving stratigraphy, sedimentology,
paleontology, proxy development, calibration, application, geochronology, and
climate modeling at highly resolved scales of time and space to understand the
major linked events of environmental, climate and biotic change at a
mechanistic level. Such projects could be expected to be cross program and
cross directorate.
Instrument and Facilities Needs for Research on Co-evolution of Life,
Environment, and Climate
Finding 1: Scientific advances could come from enhancing drilling activities ranging
from small-scale drilling with transportable rigs to the drilling scale facilitated
through Drilling, Observation and Sampling of the Earths Continental Crust
(DOSECC) and the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP).
Current practice is complicated and inefficient, leading to a discouragingly long
process.
Finding 2: There is high value in developing mechanisms for coordinated sampling
(e.g., multiproxy sampling of the same materials), analysis, and archiving of drill
core. Integrated efforts on the development of digital databases (e.g., SedDB,
Macrostrat, GeoStratSys) to store proxy and genomic data and to facilitate data
integration and comparison across all spatial and temporal scales are also necessary to
support advances. Such an effort might incorporate a strategy to integrate databases
where relevant and with paleoclimate model archives so as to make them fully
interactive.
Finding 3: Progress can be made through strategic planning by NSF for expanded
and coordinated efforts to make both high-precision geochronology and specialized
analytical facilities available to all interested scientific parties. The current structure