| 1. |
- Barbolini, Natasha, 1985-
(författare)
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Bringing science communication skills into the university classroom and back out again : What do palaeoscience educators think?
- 2022
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Ingår i: Frontiers in Education. - : Frontiers Media SA. - 2504-284X. ; 7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- University-level pedagogy and public science communication both have the same broad goal: to facilitate the sharing of knowledge and understanding from a specialist or expert, to a non-specialist group. Recent research has emphasised the need for there to be a two-way transfer or dialogue of ideas between these fields, but collaboration thus far is rare, particularly at the tertiary education level. Performing science outreach is mostly a voluntary service for academics, and institutions provide little in the way of support, training or recognition. Here I explore the potential for a positive feedback loop between science communication and higher-education pedagogy in the palaeosciences. A synthesis of best practises in science outreach is drawn from the literature and related to pedagogical concepts and findings. The resulting congruences suggest enormous potential for ‘cross-pollination' of ideas between the fields. However, in-depth one-on-one interviews and focus groups with palaeoscience educators, as well as an online survey, indicate that this potential remains largely untapped in the palaeosciences community. While respondents could identify certain skills as being integral to success in science communication, they did not appear to realise that the same skills, when applied in the classroom, could contribute towards key challenges in higher education today, including the stimulation of student engagement and motivation, the accommodation of an increasingly diverse student body, the anticipation of common student misconceptions in science, and the improvement of pedagogical models of delivery. Another emergent theme was that being a good science communicator was “much simpler” than being a good teacher, conflicting with evidence-based pedagogical and outreach research. While many palaeoscientists did express strong commitments to science communication, they had previous experience of time constraints and conflicts with other academic responsibilities. Therefore, both palaeoscientists and their institutions would benefit from viewing science communication as a valuable and formally rewardable activity within the scholarship of sharing knowledge, which also contributes to other aspects of a successful academic career.
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| 2. |
- Cavalcante, Larissa Lopes, et al.
(författare)
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Analysis of fossil plant cuticles using vibrational spectroscopy: A new preparation protocol
- 2023
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Ingår i: Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. - : Elsevier. - 0034-6667 .- 1879-0615. ; 316
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Analyses for organic “fingerprints” on fossilized plant cuticles and pollen hold valuable chemotaxonomic and palaeoclimatic information, and are thus becoming more utilized by palaeobotanists. Plant cuticle and pollen composition are generally analyzed after standard treatments with several chemical reagents for mineral and mesophyll removal. However, the potential alterations on the fossil composition caused by the different cleaning reagents used are still poorly understood. We tested the effects of commonly used palaeobotanical processing methods on the spectra of fossilized cuticles from successions of Late Triassic to Early Jurassic age, including the gymnosperms Lepidopteris, Ginkgoites, Podozamites, Ptilozamites and Pterophyllum astartense. Our study shows that standard chemical processing caused chemical alterations that might lead to erroneous interpretation of the infrared (IR) spectra. The difference in pH caused by HCl induces changes in the proportion between the two bands at ~1720 and 1600 cm 1 (carboxylate and C-C stretch of aromatic compounds) indicating that the band at ~1610 cm 1 at least partially corresponds to carboxylate instead of C-C stretch of aromatic compounds. Interestingly, despite being used in high concentration, HF did not cause changes in the chemical composition of the cuticles. The most alarming changes were caused by the use of Schulze ’s solution, which resulted in the addition of both NO2 and (O)NO2 compounds in the cuticle. Consequently, a new protocol using H2CO3, HF, and H2O2 for preparing fossil plant cuticles aimed for chemical analyses is proposed, which provides an effective substitute to the conventional methods. In particular, a less aggressive and more sustainable alternative to Schulze’s solution is shown to be hydrogen peroxide, which causes only minor alteration of the fossil cuticle ’s chemical composition. Future work should carefully follow protocols, having in mind the impacts of different solutions used to treat leaves and other palaeobotanical material such as palynomorphs with aims to enable the direct comparison of spectra obtained in different studies.
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| 3. |
- Steinthorsdottir, Margret, et al.
(författare)
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The Miocene : the Future of the Past
- 2021
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Ingår i: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. - : American Geophysical Union (AGU). - 2572-4517 .- 2572-4525. ; 36:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Miocene epoch (23.03–5.33 Ma) was a time interval of global warmth, relative to today. Continental configurations and mountain topography transitioned towards modern conditions, and many flora and fauna evolved into the same taxa that exist today. Miocene climate was dynamic: long periods of early and late glaciation bracketed a ∼2 Myr greenhouse interval – the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO). Floras, faunas, ice sheets, precipitation, pCO2, and ocean and atmospheric circulation mostly (but not ubiquitously) covaried with these large changes in climate. With higher temperatures and moderately higher pCO2 (∼400–600 ppm), the MCO has been suggested as a particularly appropriate analogue for future climate scenarios, and for assessing the predictive accuracy of numerical climate models – the same models that are used to simulate future climate. Yet, Miocene conditions have proved difficult to reconcile with models. This implies either missing positive feedbacks in the models, a lack of knowledge of past climate forcings, or the need for re‐interpretation of proxies, which might mitigate the model‐data discrepancy. Our understanding of Miocene climatic, biogeochemical, and oceanic changes on broad spatial and temporal scales is still developing. New records documenting the physical, chemical, and biotic aspects of the Earth system are emerging, and together provide a more comprehensive understanding of this important time interval. Here we review the state‐of‐the‐art in Miocene climate, ocean circulation, biogeochemical cycling, ice sheet dynamics, and biotic adaptation research as inferred through proxy observations and modelling studies.
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| 4. |
- Woutersen, A., et al.
(författare)
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The evolutionary history of the Central Asian steppe-desert taxon Nitraria (Nitrariaceae) as revealed by integration of fossil pollen morphology and molecular data
- 2023
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Ingår i: Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0024-4074 .- 1095-8339. ; 202:2, s. 195-214
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The transition from a greenhouse to an icehouse world at the Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT) coincided with a large decrease of pollen from the steppe-adapted genus Nitraria. This genus, now common along the Mediterranean coast, Asia and Australia, has a proposed coastal origin and a geographically widespread fossil record. Here we investigated the evolution, taxonomic diversity and morphological disparity of Nitraria throughout the Cenozoic by integrating extant taxa and fossil palynological morphotypes into a unified phylogenetic framework based on both DNA sequences and pollen morphological data. We present the oldest fossil pollen grain of Nitraria, at least 53 Myr old. This fossil was found in Central Asian deposits, providing new evidence for its origin in this area. We found that the EOT is an evolutionary bottleneck for Nitraria, coinciding with retreat of the proto-Paratethys Sea, a major global cooling event and a turnover in Central Asian steppe vegetation. We infer the crown age of modern Nitraria spp. to be significantly younger (Miocene) than previously estimated (Palaeocene). The diversity trajectory of Nitraria inferred from extant-only taxa differs markedly from one that also considers extinct taxa. Our study demonstrates it is therefore critical to apply an integrative approach to fully understand the plant evolutionary history of Nitrariaceae.
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