Erik Sperling
Dr. Erik Sperling is a paleontologist and geochemist studying how animals and plants are affected by environmental change in deep time, and in turn, how these organisms alter their environment. This research incorporates multiple lines of evidence, including data from the fossil record, molecular phylogenetics, sedimentary geochemistry, and ecological and physiological data from modern organisms. Dr. Sperling feels very lucky to be leading expeditionary field science to the high arctic and collaborating on this project with experts from multiple institutions including colleagues in the Geological Sciences at Stanford, UC Riverside, and Yale University
Testing the impact of land plants on the Earth system
This award will fund a preliminary field expedition to the High Arctic that will collect preliminary data and run a pilot demonstration of our Broader Impacts outreach program.