In this volume John Murray investigates the ecological processes that control the distribution, abundance, and species diversity of benthic foraminifera in environments ranging from marsh to the deepest ocean. To interpret the fossil record it is necessary to have an understanding of the ecology of modern foraminifera and the processes operating after death leading to burial and fossilisation. This book presents the ecological background required to explain how fossil forms are used in dating rocks and reconstructing past environmental features including changes of sea level. It demonstrates how living foraminifera can be used to monitor modern-day environmental change. Ecology and Applications of Benthic Foraminifera presents a comprehensive and global coverage of the subject using all the available literature. It is supported by a website hosting a large database of additional ecological information (www.cambridge.org/0521828392) and will form an important reference for academic researchers and graduate students in Earth and Environmental Sciences.

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Ecology and Applications of Benthic Foraminifera

The complexity of flow and wide variety of depositional processes operating in subaqueous density flows, combined with post-depositional consolidation and soft-sediment deformation, often make it difficult to interpret the characteristics of the original flow from the sedimentary record. This has led to considerable confusion of nomenclature in the literature. This paper attempts to clarify this situation by presenting a simple classification of sedimentary density flows, based on physical flow properties and grain-support mechanisms, and briefly discusses the likely characteristics of the deposited sediments. Cohesive flows are commonly referred to as debris flows and mud flows and defined on the basis of sediment characteristics. The boundary between cohesive and non-cohesive density flows (frictional flows) is poorly constrained, but dimensionless numbers may be of use to define flow thresholds. Frictional flows include a continuous series from sediment slides to turbidity currents. Subdivision of these flows is made on the basis of the dominant particle-support mechanisms, which include matrix strength (in cohesive flows), buoyancy, pore pressure, grain-to-grain interaction (causing dispersive pressure), Reynolds stresses (turbulence) and bed support (particles moved on the stationary bed). The dominant particle-support mechanism depends upon flow conditions, particle concentration, grain-size distribution and particle type. In hyperconcentrated density flows, very high sediment concentrations (>25 volume%) make particle interactions of major importance. The difference between hyperconcentrated density flows and cohesive flows is that the former are friction dominated. With decreasing sediment concentration, vertical particle sorting can result from differential settling, and flows in which this can occur are termed concentrated density flows. The boundary between hyperconcentrated and concentrated density flows is defined by a change in particle behaviour, such that denser or larger grains are no longer fully supported by grain interaction, thus allowing coarse-grain tail (or dense-grain tail) normal grading. The concentration at which this change occurs depends on particle size, sorting, composition and relative density, so that a single threshold concentration cannot be defined. Concentrated density flows may be highly erosive and subsequently deposit complete or incomplete Lowe and Bouma sequences. Conversely, hydroplaning at the base of debris flows, and possibly also in some hyperconcentrated flows, may reduce the fluid drag, thus allowing high flow velocities while preventing large-scale erosion. Flows with concentrations <9% by volume are true turbidity flows (sensuBagnold, 1962), in which fluid turbulence is the main particle-support mechanism. Turbidity flows and concentrated density flows can be subdivided on the basis of flow duration into instantaneous surges, longer duration surge-like flows and quasi-steady currents. Flow duration is shown to control the nature of the resulting deposits. Surge-like turbidity currents tend to produce classical Bouma sequences, whose nature at any one site depends on factors such as flow size, sediment type and proximity to source. In contrast, quasi-steady turbidity currents, generated by hyperpycnal river effluent, can deposit coarsening-up units capped by fining-up units (because of waxing and waning conditions respectively) and may also include thick units of uniform character (resulting from prolonged periods of near-steady conditions). Any flow type may progressively change character along the transport path, with transformation primarily resulting from reductions in sediment concentration through progressive entrainment of surrounding fluid and/or sediment deposition. The rate of fluid entrainment, and consequently flow transformation, is dependent on factors including slope gradient, lateral confinement, bed roughness, flow thickness and water depth. Flows with high and low sediment concentrations may co-exist in one transport event because of downflow transformations, flow stratification or shear layer development of the mixing interface with the overlying water (mixing cloud formation). Deposits of an individual flow event at one site may therefore form from a succession of different flow types, and this introduces considerable complexity into classifying the flow event or component flow types from the deposits.

The physical character of subaqueous sedimentary density flows and their deposits

http://basin.earth.ncu.edu.tw/download/courses/seminar_MSc/2012/1018_1_1.pdf

Marine hyperpycnal flows: initiation, behavior and related deposits. A review

A marine hyperpycnal plume is a particular kind of turbidity current occurring at a river mouth when the concentration of suspended sediment is so large that the density of the river water is greater than the density of sea water. The plume can then plunge and possibly erode the seafloor to become self-maintained for a particular period of time (hours to weeks). Frequency of hyperpycnal plumes emanating from river discharge can be predicted with knowledge of rating curve characteristics, particularly during flood conditions. Examples of these curves are shown for middle-sized North American rivers. Semi-empirical relationships among average discharge, average sediment concentration, and the discharge during flood are proposed and applied to 150 world rivers. Results show the importance of small and medium sized rivers in their ability to trigger underflow at their mouth. There are at least nine "dirty" rivers that may trigger underflows during one or more periods of the year. Most other rivers are cleaner...

Turbidity Currents Generated at River Mouths during Exceptional Discharges to the World Oceans

Benthic foraminifera are protozoans found throughout the deep-sea environment, secreting a test of calcium carbonate or constructing a test of cemented sediment particles (agglutinated or arenaceous foraminifera). In typical deep-sea sediments, the organic cement of agglutinated taxa degrades upon burial in the sediment and, consequently, few specimens survive in the fossil record. In contrast, calcareous species are well preserved in most oceanic sediments, except at abyssal depths where most carbonate sediment is dissolved because of high levels of carbonate under-saturation of the bottom waters. Although benthic foraminifera have been widely used in studies of Cenozoic palaeoceanography, little is known about the ecology of deep-sea species. I present here an analysis of living (stained) benthic foraminifera within the upper 15 cm of deep-sea sediments, which reveals species-specific microhabitat preferences, with distinct morphological features found with epifaunal and infaunal species. The existence of infaunal habitats suggests that the distribution of certain foraminifera is not directly controlled by overlying bottom-water conditions, but by physicochemical conditions within the sediments. The microhabitat preferences may also explain interspecific carbon isotope differences, as existing data show that infaunal foraminifera generally have lower δ13C isotope values than epifaunal species.

Microhabitats of benthic foraminifera within deep-sea sediments

The impact of suspended mussel culture (Mytilus edulis, M. trossulus) on the benthos of a small Nova Scotia cove (7 m depth) was assessed using meehods involving both benthic metabolism and community structure. Due to deposition of mussel feces and pseudofeces, sedimentation rate was higher under the mussel culture lines than at an adjacent reference site of similar sediment texture. Porewater profiles of sediment sulfate and sulfide indicated greater anaerobic metabolism at the mussel site than at the reference site, but sulfide was absent from the upper centimeters of sediments under the mussels. Seasonal measures of sediment oxygen demand showed little change between sites, but maximum rates of ammonium release at the mussel site were twice the highest rates measured at the reference site. Abundance of benthic macrofauna was higher at the reference site, but biomass was generally lower. Biomass at the mussel site was dominated by molluscs (Ilyanassa spp. andNucula tenuisulcata), that were attracted to mussels fallen from the culture and/or enriched organic matter due to biodeposition. Species diversity was lower at the reference site due to the dominance of the polychaeteNephtys neotena. Abundance-biomass comparisons (ABC method) of faunal analysis did not indicate any impact of biodeposition at this site: however, disturbance did not result in a typical assemblage of small opportunistic species anticipated with this method. Cluster analysis of macrofauna usually provided a clear separation between the sites. Since the contruction of a causeway (1968), foraminifera species composition showed a temporal response to temperature changes in the cove by shifting toward calcareous species, but assemblages downcore showed little or no relationship to aquaculture impacts. Although there is a shift toward anaerobic metabolism at the mussel lines, the impact of mussels falling to the sediments was more noticeable in benthic community structure than was any impact due to organic sedimentation or hypoxia. In general the impact of aquaculture on the benthos appeared to be minor. Furtyher assesment of these consequences may mandate both taxonomic and energetic approaches to impact assessment.

A multidisciplinary approach to evaluating impacts of shellfish aquaculture on benthic communities

A glossary and some basic taxonomy on all of the species used in this book have been provided, as an appendix, for those readers who want to go a step further. The bibliography is also in the appendix and includes all the text references as well as those only in the taxonomy section of the appendix; this should provide a good literature base for further study. A variety of applications have been shown here, such as: Climatic (including sea-level) Pollution impact, monitoring, mitigation Seismic activity “fingerprints” Sediment transport phenomena (tracers) Storm activity tracers Paleoproductivity indicators Classification and characterisation of estuaries Freshwater–marine transitions There are also remarks on several other subjects. Biostratigraphy, which is the most widely known of all microfossil applications, has been excluded as it was felt that it has been already documented in great detail elsewhere; the type of applications discussed in this book represent the future of micropaleontology and will likely be the most often used in the coming decades. It is clear that there are almost as many applications for microfossils as there are environmental problems. The authors have discussed a few examples derived from their own experience, but new types of problems arise almost daily. The readers of this book should consider these examples as just that – examples – whereas the techniques discussed in the book can be applied to any type of problem that may be encountered in aquatic environments.

Charles T. Schafer

Papers

A multidisciplinary approach to evaluating impacts of shellfish aquaculture on benthic communities

Monitoring in Coastal Environments Using Foraminifera and Thecamoebian Indicators: Conclusions and Final Remarks

Eastern Canadian estuarine foraminifera; a framework for comparison

Evidence for an earthquake-triggered basin collapse in Saguenay Fjord, Canada

Relationship of Foraminifera and thecamoebian distributions to sediments contaminated by pulp mill effluent: Saguenay Fiord, Quebec, Canada