Experimental Analysis of Foraminiferal Taphonomy: Implications for the Formation of Foraminiferal Assemblages: Collaborative Research

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Post-mortem alteration of Holocene foraminiferal assemblages from carbonate shelf and basinal environments will be examined through experimental analyses of test resistance to abrasion, dissolution and transport. In addition, the magnitude of the effect of biotic processes, such as bioerosion, will be determined through analysis of the frequency of their occurrence along a bathymetric gradient. Such analyses will enable the determination of test morphotypes which should predominate within assemblages accumulating under particular environmental regimes. These data will be compared to collections made previously along onshore to offshore traverses, thereby allowing the development of foraminiferal taphofacies models. When combined with data on the relative abundances of living species and test production rates, these results will better enable the elucidation of the relative effects of population dynamics and taphonomic processes in the formation of sediment assemblages of foraminifera. The determination of foraminiferal taphofacies based on test morphotypes, not individual species, has application to the paleoenvironmental interpretation of foraminiferal assemblages from different environments and time intervals. Taphofacies models developed by this study will be applied to Pleistocene carbonates, thereby providing tests of the models and the determination of the preservability of taphonomic signatures.