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

碳酸盐陆架和盆地环境中全新世有孔虫组合的死后变化将通过耐磨性、溶蚀和输运能力的实验分析来检验。此外，生物过程的影响程度，如生物侵蚀，将通过分析它们沿水深梯度出现的频率来确定。这样的分析将能够确定在特定环境制度下积累的组合中应占主导地位的测试形态类型。这些数据将与以前在陆上和近海采集的数据进行比较，从而可以开发有孔虫沉积相模型。结合活体物种的相对丰度和测试生产率的数据，这些结果将更好地阐明种群动态和挖掘过程在有孔虫沉积组合形成中的相对影响。基于测试形态类型而不是单个物种的有孔虫沉积相的确定，适用于不同环境和不同时间段的有孔虫组合的古环境解释。这项研究开发的沉积相模型将应用于更新世碳酸盐岩，从而提供模型测试和确定埋藏学特征的保存性。

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 alongonshore 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.