| MassExtinct
 Earth history has been punctuated by five mass extinction events, each of which resulted in major biodiversity loss and wholesale ecosystem reorganization. We are currently experiencing a sixth mass extinction due to anthropogenic causes. Projecting how future global change will influence ecosystem biodiversity is a major challenge.
The main objective of MassExtinct is to investigate the causes and consequences of the fourth greatest mass extinction event in Earth history, which occurred 200 million years ago at the Triassic–Jurassic boundary (Tr–J), and to use an understanding of past biodiversity responses to global climate change to inform contemporary conservation policy.
 These broad objectives will be achieved by developing a novel and highly multidisciplinary research program, which strongly compliments existing research priorities in University College Dublin, Ireland. Fossil plant biodiversity (richness, evenness, heterogeneity) and ecology (rarity, dominance, persistence, reproductive strategy, disparity, fire history) will be tracked in responses to Tr-J global warming, to enhance our understanding of how modern ecosystems may respond to a doubling of carbon dioxide and 1–4ºC global warming by the end of this century. Palaeoecological studies of fossil plants from Kap Stewart Group strata in E. Greenland will be coupled with long term ecophysiological experiments on model Tr-J plant communities in a new Marie Curie and UCD funded plant growth room facility called Péac (Program for Experimental Atmospheres and Climate).
  Vegetation Dynamics
Palaeowildfire
Palaeophysiology
Palaeo Atmospheres
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