This axis will investigate the evolution and dynamics of marine palaeoecosystems during critical periods in the History of Life on Earth, through the integration of palaeobiological, geophysical and geochemical information. It will contribute to the current global warming debate through monitoring the effects of long-term greenhouse and icehouse conditions and of short-term global warming events (= hyperthermals) on marine ecosystems in the past. Through the monitoring of evolutionary changes in marine biota (biozonations), of sedimentological phenomena and physical and geochemical characteristics (resistivity measurements, gamma ray emission, magnetic susceptibility), the projects linked to this axis will also document and refine the Geological Time Scale across Stage Boundaries and special bio-events.
The following stratigraphic intervals, which are particularly important in the evolution of marine ecosystems and well represented in Belgium, will be investigated:
- the Middle-Late Devonian interval;
- the Tournaisian-Viséan (Carboniferous) interval;
- the Late Cretaceous and the K-T Boundary;
- the Early Eocene;
- the Neogene.