Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Submit a response Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (20) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Culver, S. J. Articles by Horton, B. P. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

INFAUNAL MARSH FORAMINIFERA FROM THE OUTER BANKS, NORTH CAROLINA, U.S.A.

¹ Department of Geology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858, USA. E-mail: culvers{at}mail.ecu.edu
² Sea Level Research Laboratory, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

The distribution and abundance of live (rose Bengal stained) and dead, shallow infaunal (0–1 cm depth) and deep infaunal (>1 cm depth) benthic foraminifera have been documented at three locations representing different salinity settings on the fringing marshes along the Pamlico Sound and Currituck Sound coasts of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Two cores taken at each site represent the lower and higher marsh.

Twenty-two taxa were recorded as live. Of these, eight taxa were found only at shallow infaunal depths; the other 14 taxa occur at deep infaunal depths in one or more cores. Only Jadammina macrescens and Tiphotrocha comprimata were recorded as living in all six cores. The distributions of the other taxa were restricted by combinations of infaunal depth, salinity regime and location on the marsh.

The tests of infaunal foraminifera were generally more likely to be preserved in the lower marsh than the higher marsh at low- and intermediate-salinity sites. The opposite pattern was evident at the high-salinity site but this may be due to the low numbers of deep infaunal specimens recovered. Arenoparrella mexicana, Haplophragmoides wilberti, Jadammina macrescens and Trochammina inflata are the most resistant taxa, whereas Miliammina fusca is the species whose tests are most likely to be lost to post-mortem degradation. In five of the six cores, foraminiferal assemblages and populations do not differ significantly with depth which suggests that the foraminifera of the 0–1 cm depth interval provide an adequate model upon which paleoenvironmental (including former sea level) reconstructions can be based.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				P. Diz and G. Frances POSTMORTEM PROCESSES AFFECTING BENTHIC FORAMINIFERAL ASSEMBLAGES IN THE RIA DE VIGO, SPAIN: IMPLICATIONS FOR PALEOENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Journal of Foraminiferal Research, July 1, 2009; 39(3): 166 - 179. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. Edwards Sea levels: resolution and uncertainty Progress in Physical Geography, December 1, 2007; 31(6): 621 - 632. [PDF]

				I. J. Abbene, S. J. Culver, D. R. Corbett, M. A. Buzas, and L. S. Tully DISTRIBUTION OF FORAMINIFERA IN PAMLICO SOUND, NORTH CAROLINA, OVER THE PAST CENTURY Journal of Foraminiferal Research, April 1, 2006; 36(2): 135 - 151. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. M. Robinson and R. A. McBride Benthic foraminifera from a relict flood tidal delta along the Virginia/North Carolina Outer Banks Micropaleontology, March 1, 2006; 52(1): 67 - 80. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				D. J. Vance, S. J. Culver, D. R. Corbett, and M. A. Buzas FORAMINIFERA IN THE ALBEMARLE ESTUARINE SYSTEM, NORTH CAROLINA: DISTRIBUTION AND RECENT ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE Journal of Foraminiferal Research, January 1, 2006; 36(1): 15 - 33. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]