Influence of ocean gateways on the evolution of marine species: A biometric approach

• Applicant: Dr. Hanno Kinkel
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2001 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5468851

The main focus of this subproject is the influence of closure and re-opening of oceanic gateways on the evolution and biogeography of planktic and benthic organisms and their impact on the carbon cycle. Study areas are the Panama Isthmus as an example of a gateway that closed during the Neogene with fundamental effects on thermohaline circulation and climate, and the Strait of Gibraltar as an example for a gateway that, after the salinity crisis at the end of the Messinian, re-opened again in the Pliocene. We aim to apply a variety of (paleo-) biological methods (skeletal biometry, ecology, molecular genetics) to quantify the rates and speed of evolution and migration in the marine biosphere and its interaction with the environment... The results will add to better understanding of the fundamental mechanismus of speciation, extinction, and migration in the open-ocean realm and of their difference from evolutionary processes in the benthic realm.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 451: Impact of Gateways on Ocean Circulation, Climate, and Evolution
• Participating Person: Professorin Dr. Priska Schäfer