My primary research goals are directed toward understanding how the functional and trait diversity of marine fauna changed during and after events of major environmental disturbance, such as mass extinctions. I am currently working on modelling the functional and trophic dynamics of Mesozoic marine food webs.

I received my PhD in Geosciences from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2015. My dissertation work involved quantifying the functional diversity of marine invertebrate communities in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction (250 mya), the largest mass extinction in Earth's history. A major question in paleoecology and modern ecology is how paleocommunities were restructured in the aftermath of such events, and what makes some organisms and communities more resilient and stable than others during global change. The bulk of my research has concentrated on answering these questions by quantifying the functional diversity, network structure, and trait space dynamics of marine invertebrate paleocommunities in several Early and Middle Triassic localities, including China, Italy, and the western US. 

As a postdoctoral researcher at CAS, I am creating several high-resolution models of community structure for marine paleocommunities spanning the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous of Europe. This project aims to examine how the abrupt biotic reorganizations of the marine realm, as a result of the Permo-Triassic and end-Triassic mass extinctions, as well as episodes of rapid diversification, changed the structure and function of ecosystems in the aftermath.

Publications:

1) Roopnarine, P.D., and Dineen, A.A., 2018. Coral Reefs in Crisis: The reliability of deep-time food web reconstructions as analogs for the present, in Tyler, C. and Schneider, C. (eds.) Marine Conservation Paleobiology. New York, NY: Springer, p. 105-141.

2) Dineen, A.A., Fraiser, M.L., and Tong, J., 2015. Low functional evenness in a post-extinction Anisian (Middle Triassic) paleocommunity: A case study of the Leidapo Member (Qingyan Formation), south China. Global and Planetary Change, v. 133, p. 79-86.

3) Dineen, A.A, Fraiser, M.L, and Sheehan, P.M, 2014. Quantifying functional diversity in pre- and post extinction paleocommunities: A test of ecological restructuring after the end-Permian mass extinction. Earth-Science Reviews, v. 136, p. 339-349.

4) Dineen, A.A, Fraiser, M.L, and Isbell, J.L, 2013. Palaeoecology and sedimentology of Carboniferous glacial and postglacial successions in the Paganzo and Rio Blanco Basins of northwestern Argentina, in Gasiewicz, A., and Slowakiewicz, M. (eds.) Palaeozoic Climate Cycles: Their Evolutionary and Sedimentological Impact. Geological Society, London, Special Publication, v. 376, p. 109-140.

5) Pagani, M.A., Taboada, A.C., Isbell, J.L., Fraiser, M.L., Dineen, A.A., and Pauls, K.N., 2012. The Lanipustula Biozone in Patagonia: Stratigraphic extension, faunal changes, paleoclimatology, and paleoecology. Ameghiniana Sup., v. 49, no. 4, R153.

6) Isbell, J.L., Henry, L.C., Gulbranson, E.L., Limarino, C.O., Fraiser, M.L., Koch, Z.J., Ciccioli, P.L., and Dineen, A.A., 2012. Glacial paradoxes during the late Paleozoic ice age: Evaluating the equilibrium line altitude as a control on glaciation. Gondwana Research, v. 22, p. 1-19.

Share This

Contact Info

Invertebrate Zoology and Geology
adineen@calacademy.org

Curriculum Vitae

News Articles