Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T01:42:53.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Time and taphonomy: Actualistic evidence for time-averaging of benthic foraminiferal assemblages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2017

Ronald E. Martin
Ronald E. Martin*
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

For more than half a century, microfossils–especially foraminifera–have been widely used as stratigraphic markers and paleoenvironmental indicators. Although increasing emphasis has been placed on their use in high-resolution paleoclimate studies, the time-scales involved in most microfossil-based stratigraphic investigations have remained relatively coarse (hundreds-of-thousands to millions of years). My intent herein is to try to come to grips with the interplay between time-averaging of benthic foraminiferal assemblages and stratigraphic resolution, and the implications for recognition of short-term physical and biological processes. These sorts of considerations deserve much closer scrutiny as the applied Earth sciences continue to move from a base of resource exploration and exploitation to one of paleoclimate modelling and ecosystem management (Martin, 1991; Corliss, 1993). The potential stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental resolution of foraminiferal assemblages is assessed using concepts derived from the age analysis of deep-sea assemblages.

Type
Research Article
Information
Short Courses in Paleontology , Volume 6: Taphonomic Approaches to Time Resolution in Fossil Assemblages , 1993 , pp. 34 - 56
Copyright
Copyright © 1993 Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexandersson, T. 1972. Micritization of carbonate particles: Process of precipitation and dissolution in modern shallow-water sediments. Geological Institute, University of Uppsala, Bulletin, New Series, 3:201–236.Google Scholar
Aller, R.C. 1982. Carbonate dissolution in nearshore terrigenous muds: the role of physical and biological reworking. Journal of Geology, 90:79–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Archer, D., Emerson, S., and Reimers, C. 1989. Dissolution of calcite in deep-sea sediments: pH and O2 microelectrode results. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 53:2831–2845.Google Scholar
Bandy, O. L. 1953. Ecology and paleoecology of some California foraminifera. Part 1. The frequency distribution of Recent foraminifera off California. Journal of Paleontology, 27:161–182.Google Scholar
Berger, W.H. 1968. Planktonic foraminifera: Selective solution and paleoclimate interpretation. Deep-Sea Research, 15:31–43.Google Scholar
Berger, W.H. 1977. Carbon dioxide excursions and the deep-sea record: Aspects of the problem, p. 505–542. In Andersen, N.R., and Malahoff, A. (eds.), The Fate of Fossil Fuel CO2 in the Oceans. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Berger, W.H., Ekdale, A. A., and Bryant, P. P. 1979. Selective preservation of burrows in deep-sea carbonates. Marine Geology, 32:205–230.Google Scholar
Berger, W.H., and Heath, G. R. 1968. Vertical mixing in pelagic sediments. Journal of Marine Research, 26:134–143.Google Scholar
Berger, W.H., and Killingley, J. S. 1982. Box cores from the equatorial Pacific: 14C sedimentation rates and benthic mixing. Marine Geology, 45:93–125.Google Scholar
Berger, W.H., and Soutar, A. 1970. Preservation of plankton shells in an anaerobic basin off California. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 81:275–282.Google Scholar
Boreen, T.D., James, N. P., and Bone, Y. 1992. A proposed facies model for cool water carbonate shelves. American Association of Petroleum Geologists Annual Convention Program: 11.Google Scholar
Boudreau, B. P. 1986a. Mathematics of tracer mixing in sediments: I. Spatially-dependent, diffusive mixing. American Journal of Science, 286:161–198.Google Scholar
Boudreau, B. P. 1986b. Mathematics of tracer mixing in sediments: II. Nonlocal mixing and biological conveyor-belt phenomena. American Journal of Science, 286:199–238.Google Scholar
Bremer, M. L., and Lohmann, G. P. 1982. Evidence for primary control of the distribution of certain Atlantic Ocean benthonic foraminifera by degree of carbonate saturation. Deep-Sea Research, 29:987–998.Google Scholar
Brett, C.E., and Baird, G. C. 1986. Comparative taphonomy: A key to paleoenvironmental interpretation based on fossil preservation. Palaios, 3:207–227.Google Scholar
Broecker, W. S., Klas, M., Clark, E., Bonani, G., Ivy, S., and Wolfli, W. 1991. The influence of CaCO3 dissolution on core top radiocarbon ages for deep-sea sediments. Paleoceanography, 6:593–608.Google Scholar
Broecker, W. S., Mix, A., Andree, M., and Oeschger, H. 1984. Radiocarbon measurements on coexisting benthic and planktic foraminifera shells: Potential for reconstructing ocean ventilation times over the past 20,000 years. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, B5:331–339.Google Scholar
Canfield, D.E. 1991. Sulfate reduction in deep-sea sediments. American Journal of Science, 291:177–188.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Canfield, D.E., and Raiswell, R. 1991. Carbonate precipitation and dissolution: Its relevance to fossil preservation, p. 411–453. In Allison, P. A. and Briggs, D. E. G. (eds.), Taphonomy: Releasing the Data Locked in the Fossil Record. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Corliss, B. H. 1985. Microhabitats of benthic foraminifera within deep-sea sediments. Nature, 314:435–438.Google Scholar
Corliss, B. H. 1993. Marine micropaleontology and global change research. Palaios, 8:1.Google Scholar
Corliss, B. H., and Emerson, S. 1990. Distribution of rose bengal stained deep-sea benthic foraminifera from the Nova Scotian continental margin and Gulf of Maine. Deep-Sea Research, 37:381–400.Google Scholar
Corliss, B. H., and Honjo, S. 1981. Dissolution of deep-sea benthonic foraminifera. Micropaleontology, 27:356–378.Google Scholar
Cutler, A.H., and Flessa, K. W. 1990. Fossils out of sequence: Computer simulations and strategies for dealing with stratigraphic disorder. Palaios, 5:227–235.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denne, R.A., and Sen Gupta, B. K. 1989. Effects of taphonomy and habitat on the record of benthic foraminifera in modern sediments. Palaios, 4:414–423.Google Scholar
Douglas, R.G., Liestman, J., Walch, C., Blake, G., and Cotton, M. L. 1980. The transition from live to sediment assemblage in benthic foraminifera from the southern California borderland, p. 257–280. In Field, M. E., Bouma, A. H., Bouma, A.H., Colburn, I. P., Douglas, R. G., Ingle, J. C., , J.C. (eds.), Quaternary Depositional Environments of the Pacific Coast, Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists, Pacific Section, 4:257–280.Google Scholar
D'Hondt, S., Herbert, T. D., Macleod, N., and Keller, G. 1992. Comment and reply on “Hiatus distributions and mass extinctions at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary.” Geology, 19:380–382.Google Scholar
Dubois, L.G., and Prell, W. L. 1988. Effects of carbonate dissolution on the radiocarbon age structure of sediment mixed layers. Deep-Sea Research, 35:1875–1885.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ekdale, A.A., Bromley, R. G., Bromley, R.G., and Pemberton, S. G. 1984. Ichnology: The use of trace fossils in sedimentology and stratigraphy. Society of Economic Paleontologists and Mineralogists Short Course Number 15, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 317 p.Google Scholar
Emerson, S., and Bender, M. 1981. Carbon fluxes at the sediment-water interface of the deep-sea: Calcium carbonate preservation. Journal of Marine Research, 39:139–162.Google Scholar
Flessa, K.W., Cutler, A.H., and Meldahl, K. H. 1993. Time and taphonomy: quantitative estimates of time-averaging and stratigraphic disorder in a shallow marine habitat. Paleobiology, 19: 266–286.Google Scholar
Folk, R. L., and Robles, R. 1964. Carbonate sands of Isla Perez, Alacran reef complex, Yucatan. Journal of Geology, 72:255–292.Google Scholar
Fursich, F.T., and Flessa, K. W. 1987. Taphonomy of tidal flat molluscs in the northern Gulf of California: Paleoenvironmental analysis despite the perils of preservation. Palaios, 2:543–559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fursich, F.T., and Flessa, K. W., eds. 1991. Ecology, taphonomy, and paleoecology of Recent and Pleistocene molluscan faunas of Bahia la Choya, northern Gulf of California. Zitteliana, 18:1–180.Google Scholar
Glass, B.P. 1969. Reworking of deep-sea sediments as indicated by the vertical dispersion of the Australasian and Ivory Coast microtektite horizons. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 6:409–415.Google Scholar
Green, M.A., Aller, R. C., and Aller, J. Y. 1992. An experimental evaluation of the influences of biogenic reworking on carbonate preservation in nearshore sediments. Marine Geology, 107:175–181.Google Scholar
Green, M.A., Aller, R. C. and Aller, J. Y. 1993. Carbonate dissolution and temporal abundances of foraminifera in Long Island Sound sediments. Limnology and Oceanography, 38:in press.Google Scholar
Greenstein, B.J. 1989. Mass mortality of the West-Indian echinoid Diadema antillarium (Echinodermata: Echinoidea): A National Experiment in Taphonomy. Palaios, 4:487–492.Google Scholar
Guinasso, N.L., and Schink, D. R. 1975. Quantitative estimates of biological mixing rates in abyssal sediments. Journal of Geophysical Research, 80:3032–3043.Google Scholar
Hallock, P., Cottey, T. L., Forward, L. B., and Halas, J. 1986. Population biology and sediment production of Archaias angulatus (Foraminiferida) in Largo Sound, Florida. Journal of Foramineral Research, 16:1–8.Google Scholar
Hutson, W.H. 1980. Bioturbation of deep-sea sediments: Oxygen isotopes and stratigraphic uncertainty. Geology, 8:127–130.Google Scholar
Imbrie, J., Hays, J. D., Martinson, D. G., McIntyre, A., Mix, A., Morley, J. J., Pisias, N. G., Prell, W. L., and Shackleton, N. J. 1984. The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate: support from a revised chronology of the marine δ180 record, p. 269–305. In Berger, A., et al. (eds.), Milankovitch and Climate, Part I. D. Reidel, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M. 1989. Stratigraphic condensation of marine transgressive records: origin of major shell deposits in the Miocene of Maryland. Journal of Geology, 97:1–24.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M., and Bosence, D. W. J. 1991. Taphonomy and time-averaging of marine shelly faunas, p. 115–209. In Allison, P. A. and Briggs, D. E. G. (eds.), Taphonomy: Releasing the Data Locked in the Fossil Record. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Kidwell, S. M., Fursich, F. T., and Aigner, T. 1986. Conceptual framework for the analysis and classification of fossil concentrations. Palaios, 1:228–238.Google Scholar
Kotler, E., Martin, R. E., and Liddell, W. D. 1992. Experimental analysis of abrasion and dissolution resistance of modern reef-dwelling foraminifera: Implications for the reservation of biogenic carbonate. Palaios, 7:244–276.Google Scholar
Liddell, W.D., and Martin, R. E. 1989. Taphofacies in modern carbonate environments: implications for formation of foraminiferal sediment assemblages. International Geological Congress, Abstracts, 2:299.Google Scholar
Lin, S., and Morse, J. W. 1991. Sulfate reduction and iron sulfide mineral formation in Gulf of Mexico anoxic sediments. American Journal of Science, 291:55–89.Google Scholar
Linke, P., and Lutze, G. F. 1993. Microhabitat preferences of benthic foraminifera–a static concept or a dynamic adapatation to optimize food acquisition. Marine Micropaleontology, 20:215–234.Google Scholar
Loubere, P. 1989. Bioturbation and sedimentation rate control of benthic microfossil taxon abundances in surface sediments: A theoretical approach to the analysis of species microhabitats. Marine Micropaleontology, 14:317–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loubere, P. 1991. Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblage response to a surface ocean productivity gradient: A test. Paleoceanography, 6:193–204.Google Scholar
Loubere, P., and Gary, A. 1990. Taphonomic process and species microhabitats in the living to fossil assemblage transition of deeper water benthic foraminifera. Palaios, 5:375–381.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loubere, P., Gary., A., and Lagoe, M. 1993. Generation of the benthic foraminiferal assemblage: Theory and preliminary data. Marine Micropaleontology, 20:165–181.Google Scholar
Martin, R.E. 1986. Habitat and distribution of the foraminifer Archaias angulatus (Fichtel and Moll) (Miliolina, Soritidae). Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 16:201–206.Google Scholar
Martin, R.E. 1991. Beyond biostratigraphy: Micropaleontology in transition? Palaios, 6:437–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, R.E., Harris, S., and Liddell, W. D. 1992. Relative rates of foraminiferal test destruction in modern carbonate and siliciclastic regimes. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, 24:30.Google Scholar
Martin, R.E., and Liddell, W. D. 1991. Taphonomy of foraminifera in modern carbonate environments: implications for the formation of foraminiferal assemblages, p. 170–194. In Donovan, S. K. (ed.), Fossilization: The Processes of Taphonomy. Belhaven Press, London.Google Scholar
Martin, R.E., and Wright, R. C. 1988. Information loss in the transition from life to death assemblages of foraminifera in back reef environments, Key Largo, Florida. Journal of Paleontology, 62:399–410.Google Scholar
Matisoff, G. 1982. Mathematical models of bioturbation, p. 289–330. In McCall, P. L., and Tevesz, M. J. S. (eds.), Animal-Sediment Relations. Plenum Press, New York.Google Scholar
Matisoff, G., and Robbins, J. A. 1987. A model for biological mixing of sediments. Journal of Geological Education, 35:144–149.Google Scholar
McCorkle, D. C., Keigwin, L. D., Corliss', B. H. and Emerson, S. R. 1990. The influence of microhabitats on the carbon isotopic composition of deep-sea benthic foraminifera. Paleoceanography, 5:161–185.Google Scholar
Meldahl, K.H. 1987. Sedimentologic and taphonomic implications of biogenic stratification. Palaios, 2:350–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meldahl, K.H., and Flessa, K. W. 1989. Taphonomic pathways and comparative biofacies and taphofacies in a Recent intertidal/shallow shelf environment. Lethaia, 23:43–60.Google Scholar
Moore, D.G., and Scruton, P. C. 1957. Minor internal structures of some recent unconsolidated sediments. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Bulletin, 41:2723–2751.Google Scholar
Murray, J.W. 1989. Syndepositional dissolution of calcareous foraminifera in modern shallow-water sediments. Marine Micropaleontology, 15:117–121.Google Scholar
Murray-Wallace, C.V., and Belperio, A.P. Identification of remanié fossils using amino acid racemisation. Alcheringa. In press.Google Scholar
Powell, E.N. 1992. A model for death assemblage formation: Can sediment shelliness be explained? Journal of Marine Research, 50:229–265.Google Scholar
Powell, E.N., Cummins, H., Stanton, R. J., and Staff, G. 1984. Estimation of the size of molluscan larval settlement using the death assemblage. Estuarine and Coastal Shelf Science, 18:367–384.Google Scholar
Robbins, J.A. 1986. A model for particle-selective transport of tracers in sediments with conveyor belt deposit feeders. Journal of Geophysical Research, 91:8542–8558.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., and Glover, L. K. 1972. Vertical mixing of ice-rafted volcanic ash in North Atlantic sediments. Geological Society of America, Bulletin, 83:2817–2836.Google Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F., Jones, G. A., Peng, T.-H., Glover, L. K., Glass, B. P., and Liebertz, P. J. 1980. Tests for size and shape dependency in deep-sea mixing. Sedimentary Geology, 25:257–276.Google Scholar
Schiffelbein, P. 1984. Effect of benthic mixing on the information content of deep-sea stratigraphic signals. Nature, 311:651–653.Google Scholar
Schiffelbein, P. 1985. Extracting the benthic mixing impulse response function: A constrained deconvolution technique. Marine Geology, 64:313–336.Google Scholar
Schindel, D. E. 1982. Resolution analysis: a new approach to the gaps in the fossil record. Paleobiology, 8:340–353.Google Scholar
Shroba, C. S., and Orr, W. N. 1992. Paleoecology, taphonomy, and depositional environment of fossiliferous sedimentary units within the Eocene Yachalts Basalt at Heceta Head, Oregon. Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs, 24:95.Google Scholar
Smith, R.K. 1987. Fossilization potential in modern shallow-water benthic foraminiferal assemblages. Journal of Foraminiferal Research, 17:117–122.Google Scholar
Smith, S.V. 1971. Budget of calcium carbonate, southern California continental borderland. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, 41:798–808.Google Scholar
Speyer, S.E., and Brett, C. E. 1986. Trilobite taphonomy and middle Devonian taphofacies. Palaios, 1:312–327.Google Scholar
Thunell, R.C. 1976. Optimum indices of calcium carbonate dissolution in deep-sea sediments. Geology, 4:525–528.Google Scholar
Walter, L.M., and Burton, E. A. 1990. Dissolution of recent platform carbonate sediments in marine pore fluids. American Journal of Science, 290:601–643.Google Scholar
Wefer, G., and Lutze, G. F. 1978. Carbonate production by benthic foraminifera and accumulation in the western Baltic. Limnology and Oceanography, 23:992–996.Google Scholar
Wheatcroft, R.A. 1990. Preservation potential of sedimentary event layers. Geology, 18:843–845.Google Scholar
Wheatcroft, R.A. 1992. Experimental tests for particle size-dependent bioturbation in the deep ocean. Limnology and Oceanography, 37:90–104.Google Scholar
Wheatcroft, R.A., Jumars, P. A., Smith, C. R., and Nowell, A. R. M. 1990. A mechanistic view of the particulate biodiffusion coefficient: step lengths, rest periods and transport directions. Journal of Marine Research, 48:177–207.Google Scholar
Wheatcroft, R.A., and Jumars, P. A., Jumars, P.A. 1987. Statistical re-analysis for size dependency in deep-sea mixing. Marine Geology, 77:157–163.Google Scholar