Differential responses of marine communities to natural and anthropogenic changes

Kowalewski, Michał; Wittmer, Jacalyn M.; Dexter, Troy A.; Amorosi, Alessandro; Scarponi, Daniele

doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.2990

Cited by 43 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(73 reference statements)

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“…Cores can provide a much longer temporal perspective than surficial shell assemblages ( figure 1). Core data demonstrated that benthic communities of the northern Adriatic changed notably in the most recent centuries despite persevering virtually unchanged during the previous 125 000 years [20]. This exemplifies the value of palaeoecological core data in demonstrating differential responses of marine communities, which may be resilient to naturally occurring major climate perturbations, but vulnerable to recent human impacts.…”

Section: (B) Cores Excavations and Buried Palaeoecological Remainsmentioning

confidence: 72%

Understanding modern extinctions in marine ecosystems: the role of palaeoecological data

Kosnik

Kowalewski

2016

Biol. Lett.

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An invited contribution to the special feature 'Biology of extinction: inferring events, patterns and processes'. Because anthropogenic impacts on ecological systems pre-date the oldest scientific observations, historical documents and archaeological records, understanding modern extinctions requires additional data sources that extend further back in time. Palaeoecological records, which provide quantitative proxy records of ecosystems prior to human impact, are essential for understanding recent extinctions and future extinction risks. Here we critically review the value of the most recent fossil record in contributing to our understanding of modern extinctions and illustrate through case studies how naturally occurring death assemblages and Holocene sedimentary records provide context to the plight of marine ecosystems. While palaeoecological data are inherently restricted censuses of past communities (manipulative experiments are not possible), they yield quantitative records over temporal scales that are beyond the reach of ecology. Only by including palaeoecological data is it possible to fully assess the role of long-term anthropogenic processes in driving modern extinction risk.

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Section: (B) Cores Excavations and Buried Palaeoecological Remainsmentioning

confidence: 72%

Understanding modern extinctions in marine ecosystems: the role of palaeoecological data

Kosnik

Kowalewski

2016

Biol. Lett.

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“…; Kowalewski et al . ). Stability can result from strong ecological interactions (Mougi & Kondoh ), broad geographical range (Payne & Finnegan ), wide niche breadth (Jackson ), high population abundance (McKinney et al .…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

Faunal response to sea‐level and climate change in a short‐lived seaway: Jurassic of the Western Interior, USA

Danise

Holland

2017

Palaeontology

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Understanding how regional ecosystems respond to sea‐level and environmental perturbations is a main challenge in palaeoecology. Here we use quantitative abundance estimates, integrated within a sequence stratigraphic and environmental framework, to reconstruct benthic community changes through the 13 myr history of the Jurassic Sundance Seaway in the western United States. Sundance Seaway communities are notable for their low richness and high dominance relative to most areas globally in the Jurassic, and this probably reflects steep temperature and salinity gradients along the 2000 km length of the Seaway that hindered colonization of species from the open ocean. Ordination of samples shows a main turnover event at the Middle–Upper Jurassic transition, which coincided with a shift from carbonate to siliciclastic depositional systems in the Seaway, probably initiated by northward drift from subtropical latitudes to more humid temperate latitudes, and possibly global cooling. Turnover was not uniform across the onshore–offshore gradient, but was higher in offshore environments. The higher resilience of onshore communities to third‐order sea‐level fluctuations and to the change from a carbonate to a siliciclastic system was driven by a few abundant eurytopic species that persisted from the opening to the closing of the Seaway. Lower stability in offshore facies was instead controlled by the presence of more volatile stenotopic species. Such increased onshore stability in community composition contrasts with the well‐documented onshore increase in taxonomic turnover rates, and this study underscores how ecological analyses of relative abundance may contrast with taxonomically based analyses. We also demonstrate the importance of a stratigraphic palaeobiological approach to reconstructing the links between environmental and faunal gradients, and how their evolution through time produces local stratigraphic changes in community composition.

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“…The presence of foraminiferal taxa ( H. germanica and C. granosum ) tolerant to restricted conditions and the high organic matter content (Jorissen, ; Debenay et al ., ; Debenay & Guillou, ) are consistent with this interpretation. A comparable Ammonia , Cyprideis , Cardium assemblage is commonly reported from modern Mediterranean estuaries and lagoons (Russel & Petersen, ; Albani & Serandrei Barbero, ; Montenegro & Pugliese, ; Ruiz et al ., , ; Debenay & Guillou, ; Millet & Lamy, ; Carboni et al ., ), as well as from late Quaternary estuarine/lagoonal successions from other Mediterranean coastal systems (Mazzini et al ., ; Carboni et al ., , ; Amorosi et al ., , ; Curzi et al ., ; Kowalewski et al ., ; Breda et al ., ). In this context, sand layers probably represent high‐energy events related to the fluvial system entering the basin (individual floods or distal crevasse splays/subdeltas).…”

Section: Late Quaternary Subsurface Stratigraphymentioning

confidence: 99%

Late Quaternary multiple incised valley systems: An unusually well‐preserved stratigraphic record of two interglacial valley‐fill successions from the Arno Plain (northern Tuscany, Italy)

et al. 2017

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Un‐fragmented stratigraphic records of late Quaternary multiple incised valley systems are rarely preserved in the subsurface of alluvial‐delta plains due to older valley reoccupation. The identification of a well‐preserved incised valley fill succession beneath the southern interfluve of the Last Glacial Maximum Arno palaeovalley (northern Italy) represents an exceptional opportunity to examine in detail evolutionary trends of a Mediterranean system over multiple glacial–interglacial cycles. Through sedimentological and quantitative meiofauna (benthic foraminifera and ostracods) analyses of two reference cores (80 m and 100 m long) and stratigraphic correlations, a mid‐Pleistocene palaeovalley, 5 km wide and 50 m deep, was reconstructed. Whereas valley filling is chronologically constrained to the penultimate interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 7) by four electron spin resonance ages on bivalve shells (Cerastoderma glaucum), its incision is tentatively correlated with the Marine Isotope Stage 8 sea‐level fall. Above basal fluvial‐channel gravels, the incised valley fill is formed by a mud‐prone succession, up to 44 m thick, formed by a lower floodplain unit and an upper unit with brackish meiofauna that reflects the development of a wave‐dominated estuary. Subtle meiofauna changes towards less confined conditions record two marine flooding episodes, chronologically linked to the internal Marine Isotope Stage 7 climate‐eustatic variability. After the maximum transgressive phase, recorded by coastal sands, the interfluves were flooded around 200 ka (latest Marine Isotope Stage 7). The subsequent shift in river incision patterns, possibly driven by neotectonic activity, prevented valley reoccupation guiding the northward formation of the Last Glacial Maximum palaeovalley. The applied multivariate approach allowed the sedimentological characterization of the Marine Isotope Stage 7 and Marine Isotope Stage 1 palaeovalley fills, including shape, size and facies architecture, which revealed a consistent river‐coastal system response over two non‐consecutive glacial–interglacial cycles (Marine Isotope Stages 8 to 7 and Marine Isotope Stages 2 to 1). The recurring stacking pattern of facies documents a predominant control exerted on stratigraphy by Milankovitch and sub‐Milankovitch glacio‐eustatic oscillations across the late Quaternary period.

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Differential responses of marine communities to natural and anthropogenic changes

Cited by 43 publications

References 49 publications

Understanding modern extinctions in marine ecosystems: the role of palaeoecological data

Understanding modern extinctions in marine ecosystems: the role of palaeoecological data

Faunal response to sea‐level and climate change in a short‐lived seaway: Jurassic of the Western Interior, USA

Late Quaternary multiple incised valley systems: An unusually well‐preserved stratigraphic record of two interglacial valley‐fill successions from the Arno Plain (northern Tuscany, Italy)

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