RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1) What are the key controls on the burial of organic carbon in ancient marine mudrocks? What can we learn about the Earth's carbon cycle and other biogeochemical cycles from the study of organic matter burial and how can this understanding inform our knowledge of paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic processes and events?

2) What are the controls on the stratigraphic architecture of depositional sequences from the basin center, where organic-carbon rich source rocks form, to the paralic sections of the basin margin?

3) What are the ecological-evolutionary implications of organic matter burial events (and associated processes) during Earth history? What are the relative roles of oxygen depletion vs. perturbations in nutrient budgets (leading to eutrophication)?

4) What is the relationship between orbital forcing of climate and sedimentation in epeiric seas? Can the study of sedimentary cycles recorded in hemipelagic to marginal marine strata be used to improve our understanding of ancient depositional systems. Through development of high resolution orbital time scales in appropriate stratigraphic successions can we significantly improvement analysis of ancient perturbations in biogeochemical cycles and climate? Calculation of high-resolution accumulation rates for various geochemical proxies appears to be a very effective tool (see Meyers et al., 2001) Can such high resolution orbital time scales also be applied to assess evolutionary rates of fossil taxa within rhythmically bedded sequences?

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