The goal of my research is to understand how ancient and modern shallow marine ecosystems have changed through time, how shifting atmospheric conditions and weathering have affected these ecosystems, and how anthropogenic-driven change may be affecting the makeup of these ecosystems today. I also study diagenesis related to large-scale tectonic events. My research is interdisciplinary, combining paleontology, sedimentology, and geochemistry.
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PDRG News
The Coronation Fjord in the Auyuittuq National Park
Reducing uncertainty in carbon cycling in the NW Atlantic: Transforming Climate Action
Reducing uncertainty in carbon cycling in the NW Atlantic: Transforming Climate Action
Check out this outreach article about the work that Émilie Saulnier-Talbot's group at Laval and my PDRG is doing at MUN. Understanding more about the transport of carbon from land to sea and the potential for storage of carbon in sediments spanning a latitudinal gradient. Click the link to see the write up on our work and how each of us ended up in these fields of study in an interview we did with Futurum (https://www.instagram.com/p/DJ3toOAsOGa/). Also, check out the work being done in the TCA project here (https://www.ofi.ca/programs/transform-climate-action).
Oxygenation and links to land plant evolution
Oxygenation and links to land plant evolution
New records of oxygenation in the Devonian and their links to land plant evolution. This collaboration between researchers in Australia and Canada demonstrates the impact that the expansion of forests and root networks had on this period, approaching the extinction. Fluctuations in O2 may have been linked to this major terrestrial shift, affecting marine life that was later decimated at the F/F boundary. Check it out here:
New Article in Palaios - MSc Graduate and PhD Candidate Drew Brown
New Article in Palaios - MSc Graduate and PhD Candidate Drew Brown
Check out this new publication by a former MSc student of Dr. Hilary Corlett and Dr. Murray Gingras (U of Alberta). This research examines the effect that bioturbation has on carbonate sediment homogenization and pore water stablization. Drew is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Manchester, UK.
Link to the article here:
New Article in Nature Communications Earth and Environment
New Article in Nature Communications Earth and Environment
Dr. Cole McCormick, currently at Pennsylvania State University as a Post-Doctoral Scholar, and a former co-supervised student at the University of Manchester, has published new U-Pb dates for hydrothermal dolomitization across the present day southern Canadian Rockies. These dolomitization events began at the same time as the Burgess Shale faunal communities were thriving, suggesting a possibly link between these communities and hydrothermal vents at the base of the Cathedral Formation platform.
Figure 5 from McCormick, C.A., Corlett, H., Roberts, N.M.W. et al. U-Pb geochronology reveals that hydrothermal dolomitization was coeval to the deposition of the Burgess Shale lagerstätte. Commun Earth Environ 5, 318 (2024). You can find the Open Access publication here:
Stacey, J, Corlett, H, Hollis, C, Hills, D (2024) Reservoir evaluation of dolomitized Devonian strata in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin: Implications for carbon capture, utilization and storage, Journal of Sedimentary Research. Figure 10: Schematic summarizing the depositional and diagenetic controls on reservoir development in the Devonian strata of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin.
New Article in the Journal of Sedimentary Research
New Article in the Journal of Sedimentary Research
Dr. Jack Stacey, now a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and a former co-supervised, NERC-funded PhD student at the University of Manchester, has just published the last of his PhD work. This article examines Devonian carbonate reservoirs from the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in Alberta, Canada with a view of evaluating each reservoir's potential for effective long-term CO2 storage.
Please find this article published in the Journal Of Sedimentary Research, the longest running sedimentary geology journal: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/jsedres/article/doi/10.2110/jsr.2023.082/637642/Reservoir-evaluation-of-dolomitized-Devonian
Congratulations Jack! You can reach Jack at the University of Melbourne - https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/956286-jack-stacey
New Article Basin Research: Zebra Dolomites
Dr. Cole McCormick, now a Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, and a former PhD Student, co-supervised by Dr. Cathy Hollis (Manchester) and myself, has published a new open access research paper in Basin Research! https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bre.12789
This paper proposes a model for zebra dolomitization involving varying sedimentological, structural, and metasomatic controls. Check it out!
Also find Dr. McCormick's contact information here:
Figure 2: Conceptual model illustrating the multi-stage development of rock textures in HTD bodies.
NSERC - Impact Stories
NSERC - Impact Stories
Dr. Hilary Corlett is an assistant professor of paleontology at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador. As an early-career researcher, she studies rocks that contain fossils of ancient marine life to understand the impacts of climate change at different times on Earth and learn more about the climate challenges we face today.
Full Story: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/Media-Media/ImpactStories-ArticlesPercutants_eng.asp
Mapping ocean productivity during Devonian forest expansion
Mapping ocean productivity during Devonian forest expansion
The Devonian period saw an increase in terrestrial organic matter abundance through the development of tree root networks and forest diversification. The development and deepening of root networks from the Emsian-Eifelian (407-387 Ma) into the Givetian and Frasnian (387-372 Ma) resulted in increased pedogenesis and weathering that would have likely affected the marine realm. Several δ13C(org) excursions are recognized in Frasnian marine shales and carbonates worldwide and are referred to collectively as the punctata Event, named for the corresponding conodont zone. The cause of these excursions has been linked to the forest diversification. Trace metal proxies indicate that during this interval, increased soil weathering likely resulted in nearshore upper water column productivity, and bottom water anoxia.
Full Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-28542-y
SiEX, and δ13C(org) plotted versus depth; LWIR hyperspectral images of detected opal-A, and predicted Al2O3, and TOC (LWIR; greyscale).
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