Collaborative Research: A Depositional and Paleoecological model of Neogene Reef Development in the Dominican Republic: Integrating Taxonomic and Chronostratigraphic Databases

这项研究是一个重要的第一步，在构建年代地层框架所需的区域对比和环境解释的浅海底栖生物群落在热带西大西洋之间的6和1马。该研究为评估动物群更替和群落变化提供了地层和环境框架。它涉及的问题包括：（1）在形成现代加勒比海珊瑚礁生态系统发展的更替时期，珊瑚礁群落是否/如何随时间发生变化，以及（2）这些变化是否/如何与环境变化有关。关于底栖有孔虫的新数据正与关于沉积特征的资料相结合，以解释沉积环境。由此产生的地层和环境框架被用来评估模式的时间和空间变化的珊瑚礁和自由生活的珊瑚群落及其环境相关。该项目还探讨了群落变化、物种形成和灭绝之间的关系，以便更好地了解新物种加入群落和灭绝物种被移走所涉及的生态过程，该地区的浅海底栖生物群落因中美洲地峡关闭和北方半球冰川作用开始引起的生物周转而发生了深刻的变化。珊瑚和软体动物以及许多其他海洋生物在分类组成和群落结构方面的变化都有充分的记录。这些事件塑造了加勒比区域现代浅水底栖生物群落的组成和结构。营业额的原因是有争议的，知之甚少，部分原因是因为大多数进化研究的背景下，没有进行严格的地层和环境框架。需要高分辨率年代地层学来确定演化事件的时间，并重建影响营养物和温度等环境因素的海洋环流和海平面的区域变化。作为这项工作的一部分，该小组正在修订最重要的生态优势物种之一Stylophora的系统分类，Stylophora在更替结束时在加勒比灭绝，该项目通过在爱荷华州大学的热带美洲新近纪海洋B分类数据库中增加新的数据类型，并将热带美洲新近纪海洋生物分类数据库与CHRONOS联系起来，为古生物界提供信息。具体来说，该小组正在为多米尼加共和国北方的Cibao山谷的一个典型的、富含碳酸盐的层序开发一个综合年代地层模型。该序列包含更多的首次出现的珊瑚礁比任何其他已知的加勒比海序列（37的91个物种记录首次出现），因此是了解物种形成过程中的周转事件的关键。

This study represents an important first step in constructing the chronostratigraphic framework needed for regional correlation and environmental interpretation for shallow marine benthic communities in the tropical Western Atlantic between 6 and 1 Ma. The research provides a stratigraphic and environmental framework for evaluating faunal turnover and community change. It addresses questions including: (1) if/how did reef communities change over time during an episode of turnover which shaped the development of modern Caribbean reef ecosystems, and (2) if/how were these changes related to changes in the environment. New data on benthic foraminifera are being combined with information on sedimentary features to interpret depositional environments. The resulting stratigraphic and environmental framework is used to assess patterns of temporal and spatial variation in both reef coral and free-living coral communities and their environmental correlates. The project also explores the relationship between community change, speciation, and extinction in order to better understand the ecological processes involved as new species were added to communities and extinct species were removed.Shallow marine benthic communities in the area were profoundly altered by biotic turnover associated with the closure of the Central American isthmus and the onset of Northern hemisphere glaciation. Changes in taxonomic composition and community structure are well documented in corals and mollusks and in many other marine organisms. These events were responsible for shaping the composition and structure of modern-day shallow benthic communities in the Caribbean region. The causes of turnover are controversial and poorly understood, in part because most evolutionary studies are not performed within the context of a rigorous stratigraphic and environmental framework. High-resolution chronostratigraphy is needed for determining the timing of evolutionary events, and for reconstructing regional changes in ocean circulation and sea level that affected environmental factors such as nutrients and temperature. As part of this work, the group is revising the systematics of one of the most important ecological dominants, the Stylophora, which became extinct in the Caribbean at the end of the turnover.By adding new data types to the Neogene Marine b(I)ota of Tropical America (NMITA) taxonomic database at the University of Iowa and linking NMITA with CHRONOS, the project provides information to the paleontological community. Specifically, the team are developing an integrated chronostratigraphic model for a classic, richly fossiliferous sequence extending from ~6-3 Ma, the Cibao Valley of the northern Dominican Republic. The sequence contains more first occurrences of reef corals than any other known Caribbean sequence (37 of the 91 recorded species first occur) and is therefore critical for understanding speciation events during turnover.