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Assessing the influence of astronomical phenomena on terrestrial biodiversity. Fabo Feng, Coryn Bailer-Jones Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg 27.09.2012. Background. Rohde & Muller, Nature, 2005. Number of genera (thansands). Biodiversity = Origination – Extinction
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Assessing the influence of astronomical phenomena on terrestrial biodiversity Fabo Feng, Coryn Bailer-Jones Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg 27.09.2012
Background Rohde & Muller, Nature, 2005 Number of genera (thansands) Biodiversity = Origination – Extinction Trend + Periodic Oscillation? Age(Myr)
Claimed astronomical mechanisms Perturb Oort Cloud (possibly caused by the motion of the Sun) Cosmic Ray(Star formation, interstellar magnetic field) Supernova & GRB Reviewed in Bailer-Jones (2009)
A possible connection between the solar environment and the biosphere Stellar density Study the solar motion Build an orbit-based model Reference models Test the model
Data: time series & extinction rate Raup & Sepkoski, Science, 1982 Bambach, Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci., 2006 Rohde & Muller, Nature, 2005 Alroy et. al., Science, 2008
stellar density Solar motion Orbit-based model
reference models Orbit-based model Bayesian inference data sets Likelihood = Integral of the normalized extinction rate over the normalized stellar density Evidence = Averaging likelihood over the parameter space (initial condition) Evidence ratio = Evidence1/Evidence2 Extinction Rate Stellar Density
Reference Models: Periodic Probability of observing the extinction time given the parameters of Periodicmodel
Reference Models: Random Probability of observing the extinction time given the parameters of Random model
Reference Models: Uniform Probability of observing the extinction time given the parameters of Uniform model
Likelihood for Orbit-based model Data: B18 Model: Orbit-based model
Likelihood for Periodic model Data: B18 Model: Periodic model
Evidence Ratio Data: B18 Model: Orbit-based model v.s. reference models
Summary • Neither the Orbit-based model nor other reference models are favored over the uniform model • In particular, no evidence for periodicity in biodiversity data • Additional information: astroimpacts.org