Modern Foraminifera, Swan River Estuary, Western Australia: Distribution and Controlling Factors

Quilty, Patrick G.; Hosie, Graham W.

doi:10.2113/gsjfr.36.4.291

Cited by 17 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…In New Zealand, shallow-water (<100 m), normal marine environment assemblages are determined to be influenced by water depth, wave and current energy, bottom water oxygen concentrations and substrate type (Hulme 1964;Hayward 1990Hayward , 1993Hayward et al 1997aHayward et al , b, 1999. In Australia, foraminiferal distributions have been linked to water depth (Michie 1987;Cann et al 2000a, b), salinity and tidal mixing (Haslett 2001;Wang & Chappell 2001;Binnie & Cann 2008;Nash et al 2010), presence of vegetation (Cann et al 2002;Nash et al 2010), temperature and oxygen content (Quilty & Hosie 2006;Nobes & Uthicke 2008), bottom currents (Albani 1970), sedimentary environments (Palmeiri 1976), or combinations of the above. However, the vast majority of distribution studies in Australia make no attempt to reconcile distribution with environmental controls and purely explore taxonomic occurrence, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent benthic foraminifera from Twofold Bay, Eden NSW: community structure, biotopes and distribution controls

Dean¹

2013

Australian Journal of Earth Sciences

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Twofold Bay lies at the confluence of two oceanic boundaries, the near end of the East Australian Current and waters from the Southern Ocean. The Bay is NSW's largest commercial fishing port and has been home to much anthropogenic activity, ranging from whaling, mussel farming, timber export, large boat traffic, Australian Navy activities and recreational fishing. We investigated the sediments and associated foraminifer fauna in the bay and identified four different sedimentological associations linked to local currents and water depths and three foraminiferal associations, with live to dead specimen ratios established for each sample site. Three principal biotopes have been identified using cluster analysis of foraminiferal assemblages, with each biotope characterised by a specific faunal population and substrate type: (1) Inner Bay Biotope, characterised by Elphidium aff. advenum and predominantly very fine-fine sand substrates (63-250 mm); (2) Outer Bay Biotope characterised by Discorbis dimidiatus and medium-coarse sand substrates (250-1000 mm); (3) Harbour Biotope characterised by the widespread species Elphidium advenum macelliforme and bimodal sediments with very fine-coarse silts (2-63 mm) and medium sands (250-500 mm). Substrate type and energy intensity are proposed as limiting factors to foraminiferal distribution and composition. In addition, a short (21 cm long) core obtained from near the entrance of Eden Harbour has been examined in terms of foraminifer assemblages established for the bay. Microfaunal composition shifts clearly correlate with sediment colour changes, while foraminiferal and sedimentary data indicate strong concordant physical and ecological patterns. However, radiocarbon dates from various levels in the core point to sediment disturbance, contradicting this hypothesis. Hence, the dating of the sequence remains problematic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent benthic foraminifera from Twofold Bay, Eden NSW: community structure, biotopes and distribution controls

Dean¹

2013

Australian Journal of Earth Sciences

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“…Indeed, in literature, this species is reported as mixotrophic, chloroplast-retaining taxa, capable to support highly variable nutrient conditions, hypo-salinity, high-turbidity, low oxygen, low water energy and reduced water circulation, occurring in habitats at the upper limits of symbiont-bearing species (Narayan and Pandolfi, 2010;Palmieri, 1976;Renema, 2008). Textularia pseudogramen, E. crispum, C. lobatulus and R. australis are cosmopolitan species, typical of tropical/temperate shallow-water (Collins, 1974;Montaggioni and Vénec-Peyré, 1993;Quilty and Hosie, 2006).…”

Section: Pseudogramen R Australis)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, benthic foraminifera can indicate both short-and long-term changes in most marine and transitional environments because their life-cycle is related to several parameters such as sediment texture (Buosi et al, 2013a,b;Celia Magno et al, 2012), seabed morphology (Corbí et al, 2016;Schröder-Adams et al, 2008), bathymetry (Avnaim-Katav et al, 2015;García-Sanz et al, 2018), water currents (Buosi et al, 2012;Schönfeld, 2002a,b), seagrass ecosystem (Frezza et al, 2011;Mateu-Vicens et al, 2014;Trabelsi et al, 2018), temperature (Lei et al, 2019;Titelboim et al, 2019), organic content (Armynot du Châtelet et al, 2009;Di Bella et al, 2019;Martins et al, 2015), dissolved oxygen, salinity, light (Charrieau et al, 2018;Lee et al, 2016a;LeKieffre et al, 2017), and pollutants (e.g., Ferraro et al, 2006;Schintu et al, 2016). Reasons for the growing interest in these studies are multiples but are mainly linked to two principal aspects: data on modern distributions allow the interpretation of past environments and provide baseline information for monitoring of future environmental changes, induced by natural or anthropogenic forcing (Quilty and Hosie, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…and Marginopora vertebralis (e.g., Doo et al, 2017;Lee et al, 2016b;Prazeres et al, 2017) or investigates the importance of large benthic foraminifera to reef sediment budget and dynamics of the Great Barrier Reef (e.g., Dawson et al, 2014;Renema et al, 2013). Despite these studies, the investigations of the benthic foraminifera assemblages and associated physical and biological parameters that influenced their distribution in the nearshore environments of southern Australia are very limited Dean and De Deckker, 2013;Li et al, 1996;Nash et al, 2010;Quilty and Hosie, 2006;Schröder-Adams et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Foraminiferal biotopes in a shallow continental shelf environment: Esperance Bay (southwestern Australia)

Buosi

Tecchiato²,

Ibba

et al. 2020

Journal of Sea Research

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The Great Australian Bight is a large carbonate cold water environment located on the central and western portions of the southern Australia. Seagrasses (Posidonia sp.) and macroalgae benthic habitats are widely distributed in the shallow water environment of southern Australia, contributing to the carbonate factory. This study investigated the distribution of modern benthic foraminiferal assemblages in the microtidal wave-dominated inner-shelf of Esperance Bay (southwestern Australia), that lies on the western margin of the Great Australian Bight. Benthic foraminifera were taxonomically identified and biotic parameters (species richness, density, Fisher-α index, Shannon-Weaver index, dominance) were calculated. Multivariate analyses (Hierarchical Cluster Analysis, Principal Component Analysis) were performed to understand foraminiferal distribution in the context of environmental conditions. Four main foraminiferal assemblages have been recognized: (I) a nearshore assemblage of dense seagrass meadow, dominated by Lamellodiscorbis dimidiatus, Elphidium craticulatum, Elphidium crispum, Cibicides lobatulus, II) a second assemblage associated with unvegetated seabed (approximately 30 m depth) with Lamellodiscorbis dimidiatus, Elphidium crispum, Quinqueloculina disparilis, III) a third assemblage in the central sector of the bay, characterized by a discontinuous and mixed seagrass-algae coverage with Lamellodiscorbis dimidiatus, Elphidium crispum, Elphidium macellum, Cibicides refulgens, and Quinqueloculina poeyana, and IV) an epiphytic assemblage of transitional zone from the coastline to the upper limit of a mixed seagrass-algae meadow, dominated by Elphidium crispum, Chrysalidinella dimorpha, Planulinoides biconcava, Planoglabratella opercularis, Rugobolivinella elegans. The spatial distribution of the four assemblages appears closely related to sediment texture, seagrass cover and depth, but it is also influenced by the shoreface morphology and the hydrodynamic energy. The understanding of the ecological parameters that influence benthic foraminiferal distribution, composition and assemblage structure within seagrass meadows is useful for paleoecological and paleoenvironmental interpretations.

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“…Moreover, the relationships between environmental factors and foraminiferal assemblages can aid in interpreting palaeoecological conditions in Quaternary estuarine deposits (Huang & Yan, 1997;Li et al, 2002;Birks, 2003). Furthermore, information on present distributional patterns can provide baseline data for monitoring the impact of anthropogenic activity (Mendes et al, 2004;Quilty & Hosie, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foraminifera as Environmental Indicators and Quantitative Salinity Reconstructions in the Pearl River Estuary, Southern China

Liu

Fürsich

et al. 2015

Journal of Foraminiferal Research

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A total of 117 surface sediment samples from sites across the Pearl River Estuary, southern China, were collected to analyze relationships between foraminiferal distributions and environmental parameters such as salinity, depth, substrate, and water energy. A total of 123 species of foraminifera were identified. A Q-mode cluster analysis resulted in five clusters (relative abundance $5%), which each corresponded to a particular species association, reflecting different sub-environments: (A) the Ammonia tepida-Elphidium excavatum association, found in distributary channels and river mouths of the estuary, with low salinity, shallow water, strong currents, and comparatively coarse sediments; (B) the Ammobaculites formosensis-Cavarotalia annectens association, found in brackish waters near Lantau Island and southeastern Lingding Bay, characterizing turbid brackish-water conditions and sediment consisting of a mixture of sand-clay-silt; (C) the Haplophragmoides canariensis-Ammobaculites agglutinans var. association, found in the artificial harbor near Macao and greatly affected by human activities; (D) the Ammonia beccarii var.-Cavarotalia annectens association, mainly found in the deep channels of two bays and representing euryhaline conditions; and (E) the Ammonia tepida-Elphidium advenum association, mainly found at depths .10 m, higher salinity, low energy, and fine-grained substrate, indicating relatively stable conditions. Agglutinated foraminiferal taxa are better indicators than calcareous taxa of littoral zone environments with a mixture of sand-clay-silt substrate. Benthic foraminiferal distributions in the surface sediments were strongly influenced by salinity. Consequently, a salinity transfer function was developed using weighted-averaging partial least-squares regression. The transfer function was tested on a sediment core collected near the Modaomen distributary, with the goal to reconstruct the palaeosalinity from ,10,100 to ,5960 cal yr BP, an interval with sufficient foraminiferal tests for analysis. At ,10,100 cal yr BP, marine waters flooded the Da'ao plain. Then, a semienclosed estuarine environment developed and persisted until ,5960 cal yr BP. Salinity at the core site increased gradually during the early Holocene (from ,10,100 to ,8200 cal yr BP), although a short-term decrease can be recognized. The peak salinity occurred between ,8520 and 8200 cal yr BP, when brackish-marine taxa reached their highest abundances. The core site experienced declining salinity from ,8200 cal yr BP onwards as a result of strong river discharge and a decrease of marine water influence at the core site.

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Modern Foraminifera, Swan River Estuary, Western Australia: Distribution and Controlling Factors

Cited by 17 publications

References 28 publications

Recent benthic foraminifera from Twofold Bay, Eden NSW: community structure, biotopes and distribution controls

Recent benthic foraminifera from Twofold Bay, Eden NSW: community structure, biotopes and distribution controls

Foraminiferal biotopes in a shallow continental shelf environment: Esperance Bay (southwestern Australia)

Foraminifera as Environmental Indicators and Quantitative Salinity Reconstructions in the Pearl River Estuary, Southern China

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