Evolution
Our research has helped us understand what flora and fauna lived in terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and how biodiversity changed through geological time
How will past evolutionary trends shape our future?
We look back at geological records covering many millions of years of Earth’s history, with a focus on Aotearoa New Zealand and the ocean surrounding it. By examining these records, we discover and interpret:
- evolutionary trends in species
- why and when some species become extinct or suddenly experience large changes in abundance (blooms)
- what happens after a major mass extinction
- how single species change through time and adapt to changes in environmental and climate conditions.
The southwest Pacific is a key focus area
Ecosystems are strongly affected by the interplay of polar and tropical influences. Previous projects and collaborations have shown that the climate of the southwest Pacific has not conformed to the global norm, being anomalously warmer in some warm climate states and anomalously cooler in others.
Paleoclimate data generated from these projects can help validate or assess paleoclimate model reconstructions and corroborate projections of future climate sensitivity and warming being generated by modern climate models.
