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Research - Dan Lehrmann

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My research specializes on the factors controlling the evolution of marine sedimentary basins and the evolution of carbonate platforms and tropical reefs within such basins. This work has investigated various mechanisms that have impacted the depositional systems within marine basins such as tectonics, volcanism, sea level change, climate and local environmental change, changes in ocean chemistry, and changes in the life forms present.

Over the last several years my work has focused on 4 main projects and several associated smaller projects: 1) The influences of tectonics and other environmental factors on the evolution of carbonate platforms in the Nanpanjiang basin of south China, 2) Environmental conditions and mechanisms of the end-Permian mass extinction and biotic recovery following the extinction in south China, Japan, and Turkey, 3) Mechanisms controlling initiation and evolution of Tertiary carbonate reefs in southern Java, and 4) a recently initiated study to evaluate the mechanisms controlling the siliciclastic turbidite fill patterns and consequent impacts on carbonate platform evolution in the Nanpanjing basin of south China.

The Nanpanjiang basin carbonate platform project was funded by the National Science Foundation and the American Chemical Society.  The influences of global vs. regional variables were isolated by comparison of carbonate platform architectures, constrained by mapping, within a high-resolution biostratigraphic, geochronologic, and magnetostratigraphic framework. Differences in tectonic subsidence were interpreted by backstripping analysis; impacts of clastic flux, and local environmental factors were evaluated from facies analysis. This project was done in collaboration with University of Kansas Professor Paul Enos, postdoctoral geophysicist Paul Montgomery, and the Guizhou Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources.  The project has included the completion of a Ph.D. dissertation, a Masters thesis, and 14 undergraduate independent research studies, and has featured the involvement of four undergraduate students in field work in south China. This project has resulted in fifteen papers to date.  The undergraduate research students involved in this project have received a total of six best student poster awards at scientific meetings – one at the national AAPG meeting, three at GSA sectional meetings, and two at the University of Wisconsin Celebration of Scholarship.

The end-Permian extinction researchwas funded by the American Chemical Society and has been conducted in collaboration with Jon Payne at Stanford University, Andrew Knoll at Harvard and Sam Bowring at MIT. This work involves field, petrographic and geochemical analysis of expanded Permian-Triassic sections in China, Japan, and Turkey to evaluate environmental and biotic conditions associated with the extinction and recovery interval. Conodont biostratigraphy and zircon geochronology are used to constrain correlations and temporal patterns of extinction and recovery. Uranium-Lead geochronology demonstrates the absolute age of the biotic recovery at 247.2 Ma and thus establishing that the duration of the recovery interval was 5 million years. Field work, sedimentology, and isotope geochemistry demonstrate that the recovery interval was characterized by large perturbations in carbon isotopes interpreted to have resulted from volcanism and to have prevented recovery of life via massive global warming and CO2 poisoning. Results from China, Turkey and Japan demonstrated similar environmental perturbations in each locality thus demonstrating the global extent of these events.  This work has involved nine undergraduate students in independent research projects and has featured the involvement of two undergraduate students in field work in Turkey and Japan. This project has resulted in twelve  papers to date.  Students presented results of this research at meetings of the GSA, AGU, and AAPG as well as the UW-Oshkosh Celebration of Scholarship. One of the student presentation won best student paper award at North Central GSA, and another won the SEPM best poster award at an annual AAPG meeting.

Field work for the Tertiary reef study in southern Java was conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Technology Bandung, and UPN University Yogyakarta during my sabbatical and was funded by a Fulbright Senior Scholar grant during the spring and summer of 2006. Carbonate platforms were initiated on complex topography of an eroded volcanic arc of southern Java. Complex patterns of facies development were affected by differential subsidence of basins between eroding volcanic centers. Ongoing work focuses on data compilation and correlation, biostratigraphy using foraminifera, and petrography. One undergraduate student has completed an independent research project and presented results at the North Central Section and National meetings of the GSA in 2008. Two additional students are currently working on independent research studies funded by University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Undergraduate-Faculty collaborative research grants.

My latest project on the “Patterns of tectonics, provenance, and sediment fill in large complex foreland basins: field, petrographic and detrital zircon analysis of siliciclastic turbidites in the Nanpanjiang basin of south China” is funded by the American Chemical Society and Shell International Exploration and Production Co. The goal of this projects is to use field characterization of the turbidite facies and paleocurrent indicators to determine the timing and fill directions of turbidite fan systems in the basin, to use petrography and detrital zircon analysis to evaluate potential source areas in the basin, and to evaluate the tectonic controls on the evolution of the turbidite systems and the impact of turbidite fill patterns on carbonate platform evolution. The project will involve several undergraduate students in field and laboratory work in the coming years.

I have also been active in technology exchange with Chinese collaborators of the Guizhou Bureau of Geology and Mineral resources, Guizhou University, and Guangxi Geologic Survey by providing research presentations and workshops in China and by sponsoring cooperative exchange visits of Chinese geologists to the U.S. I have sponsored 3 Chinese colleagues to conduct collaborative research projects in the U.S.; Grants supporting these projects came from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Vander Putten International Fund.

In 2005 I led a field trip to south China for the IGCP sponsored “International Symposium for Triassic Chronostratigraphy and Biotic Recovery”. I have also begun a study abroad program “Field Geology in China” at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh that will take student groups biannually alternating between north and south China. I co-lead this program with Professor Wang Yang of Wichita State University.  In the summer of 2007 we led our first trip with 19 undergraduate students attending to the Ordos Basin and Qinling Orogen of north China. During the summer of 2009 we led our second trip with 23 undergraduate students to the Nanpanjiang Basin of south China.


Grants:

  1. Shell International Exploration and Production, Summer, 2009, $138,000, Patterns of tectonics, provenance, and sediment fill in large complex foreland basins: field, petrographic and detrital zircon analysis of siliciclastic turbidites in the Nanpanjiang basin of south China

  2. Petroleum Research Fund, American Chemical Society, Spring 2009, $65,000, Patterns of sediment fill and tectonics in large complex foreland basins: timing and provenance of siliciclastic turbidites of the Nanpanjiang basin, south China

  3. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty-Undergraduate student collaborative research grant, Spring 2009, $3000, Evaluation of controls of patch reef distribution: Miocene, Wonosari Formation of south central Java, Indonesia.

  4. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty-Undergraduate student collaborative research grant, Spring 2009, $3000, Petrographic evaluation of the Sambibitu Conglomerate: controls on unconformity development and swubsequent nucleation of carbonate platforms in an active volcanic arc setting of south central Java, Indonesia.

  5. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty Development Program, Teaching Component. Spring 2008, Development of an integrated historically based field course in the St. Francois and Ozark mountains of Missouri.

  6. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty-Undergraduate student collaborative research grant, Fall 2008, $3000, “Petrographic evaluation of a Permian-Triassic erosion surface and implications for causes of the end-Permian mass extinction”

  7. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty-Undergraduate student collaborative research grant, Fall 2005, $3000, “Environmental conditions during recovery from the end-Permian extinction: comparative analysis of carbon isotope data from China, Japan, and Turkey”

  8. Fulbright Traditional Scholar Program. Senior Scholar Grant, Spring 2005, $21, 250, “Carbonate sedimentology; Environmental controls on the evolution of Indonesian coral reefs (for 5 months research in Java, spring 2006)

  9. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty Development Program, Spring 2005, $1500 “ICS Permian Triassic Field Trip” Off campus grant.

  10. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty-Undergraduate student collaborative research grant, Spring 2005, $3000, Petrographic and geochemical evaluation of evaluation of the mechanism and environment of the End-Permian extinction, southwest Turkey.”

  11. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Faculty-Undergraduate student collaborative research grant, Spring 2005, $3000, Petrographic and geochemical evaluation of evaluation of the mechanism and environment of the End-Permian extinction, southwest Japan.”

  12. Petroleum Research Fund, American Chemical Society, Spring 2004, $50,000, "Stratigraphic, paleontological and geochemical investigation of links among ocean chemistry, microbial-cement precipitates, and patterns of metazoan recovery during the Early Triassic."

  13. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Undergraduate student and faculty collaborative research grant, Spring 2004, $ 2500, “Paleontological study of Middle Triassic Reef Evolution, Nanpanjiang Basin, south China; Evaluation of Reef Recovery From The end-Permian Mass Extinction"

  14. Vander Putten International Fund, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Fall 2002, $5000, “International research collaboration:Conodont biostratigraphy of a potential Triassic global stratotype section from western Guizhou Province, south China"

  15. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Faculty Development Program,  Spring 2002, “Reef Evolution During the Biotic Recovery From The end-Permian Mass Extinction”

  16. National Sinian Science Foundation (NSSF), fall, 2001, $26,000 U.S., “Response of strontium isotopic geochemistry to Triassic high resolution sequence stratigraphy in southwestern Guizhou province, China,” PI: Li Rongxi, (Guizhou Geochemistry Institute). CoPi’s: Wei Jiayong, Wang Xingli, and Luo Xiaojun (Guizhou Geochemistry Institute), Dan Lehrmann (University of Wisconsin Oshkosh), and Paul Enos (University of Kansas).

  17. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Undergraduate student and faculty collaborative research grant, Spring 2001, $ 2500, “ Facies and microfossil study of the mechanisms and timing of the termination of the Heshan carbonate platform, Nanpanjiang Basin, south China.”

  18. Vander Putten International Fund, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Fall 2000, $3000, “International research collaboration: study of Late Triassic marine reptile and crinoid fossils from western Guizhou province, South China.”

  19. National Science Foundation, Fall 1998, $200,000: "Collaborative research, RUI, Evaluation of Controls on Carbonate Platform Evolution and Architecture through Comparative Platform Analysis, Nanpanjiang Basin, South China."

  20. National Science Foundation supplement, fall 2000, $10,000, "Organic carbon isotope analysis of unique conformable Permian-Triassic boundary sections from isolated carbonate platforms in the Nanpanjiang Basin, South China"

  21. National Science Foundation REU (Research Experience Undergraduate) supplement, fall 1999, $5000,  "Evaluation of Timing and Mechanisms of Step-back and Termination of an Isolated Triassic Carbonate Platform: The Pingguo Platform, Nanpanjiang Basin, Guangxi province, South China".

  22. Petroleum Research Fund, American Chemical Society, Spring 1998, $30,000: "Evaluation of Controls on Carbonate Platform Evolution and Architecture through Comparative Platform Analysis, Nanpanjiang Basin, South China."

  23. University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Faculty Development Program, Spring 1997: "Sedimentology and stratigraphy of Proterozoic Iron Formation in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan."