Benthic faunal patchiness on soft substrates in modern and paleozoic communities
Conference
·
· Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States)
OSTI ID:6652863
The assumption that fossils are homogeneously distributed, at least on a small scale is common to many paleoecological studies. However, the fauna of most modern benthic marine communities from intertidal to abyssal depths is patchily distributed. Inherently heterogeneous substrates, such as rocky substrates, have patchy communities because of the diversity of microenvironments, but faunal patchiness in homogeneous environments, such as low energy, muddy bottoms, is due to biotic interactions. A wide variety of shelled invertebrates are known to be gregarious. The shelly fauna of Paleozoic BSB communities is dominantly epifaunal, as opposed to the dominantly infaunal modern BSB communities. Patchiness in Paleozoic BSB communities was commonly initiated by the fortuitous occurrence of shells on the muddy bottoms, and sustained by positive taphonomic feedback (taphonomic facilitation). Paleozoic examples of gregarious species are also known. Commonly used sampling schemes require the assumption that the fauna is homogeneously distributed at scales smaller than the distance between samples. The best method to sample patchy faunas is with nested or hierarchical sampling schemes in which samples are taken at a variety of spacings. The failure to account for patchiness can lead to incorrect paleoecological interpretations primarily due to the effect of time averaging of ephemeral patches. It is probably a good assumption that most BSB paleocommunities were originally patchy, and homogeneous faunas are the result of taphonomic mixing.
- Research Organization:
- Indiana Univ., Bloomington (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6652863
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-8510489-
- Conference Information:
- Journal Name: Geol. Soc. Am., Abstr. Programs; (United States) Journal Volume: 17
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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