Foraminiferal Faunal Trends and Assemblages of the Bohai Sea, Huanghai Sea and East China Sea
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BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE. 47(1:): 192-212. 1990 FORAMINIFERAL FAUNAL TRENDS AND ASSEMBLAGES OF THE BOHAI SEA, HUANGHAI SEA AND EAST CHINA SEA Shouyi Zheng ABSTRACT Qualitative and quantitative studies of Recent foraminifera of the Bohai, Huanghai, and East China Seas gave distributional data on: faunal composition; dominant indicator species (including species occurring in high to low numbers); species diversity; faunal dominance; absolute abundance; percentage composition of agglutinated, porcelaneous and hyaline tests; planktonic/benthonic (P/B) foraminiferal ratio; and others. Correlation offaunal trends with known environmental parameters such as salinity, temperature, prevailing current and water mass systems, substrate, CaCO, content of sediment, and more allowed establishment of foraminiferal assemblages useful for ecological and paleoecological interpretations. Based on marked changes in frequency composition among dominant benthic species, six benthonic assemblages were recognized in the Bohai Sea, three in the northern Huanghai Sea, five in the southern Huanghai Sea, and nine in the East China Sea. In addition, four planktonic assemblages characterized the East China Sea and southern Huanghai Sea. The small size, great abundance and wide distribution of their preservable tests in Recent and fossil sediments, together with their usefulness as environmental indicators, has resulted in more comprehensive study of foraminifera than most other marine protozoa. Their sensitivity to environmental changes is reflected in various specific and non-specific distributional trends. The cumulative occurrence of their preservable tests on the sea floor mirrors not only small-scale temporal and spatial features, but also long-term average environmental and taphonomic processes. PHYSIOGRAPHY AND HYDROGRAPHY OF THE AREA STUDIED The three seas under study for their foraminiferal trends cover a range of 15 degrees of latitude (Fig. 1). Each sea has its distinctive set of physical and hydrological characteristics which control the distribution of the foraminifera. The East China Sea, averaging 370 m in depth, ranges from a few meters to 2,719 m. It is largely influenced by the warm, saline Kuroshio Current and its branches, the Taiwan Warm Current, the Tsushima Warm Current, and the Huanghai Warm Current (Fig. I). It has an average surface water temperature of 28°C in summer and II-21°C in winter. The average surface salinity is 300/00at the Changjiang River mouth and 34.50/00in the main Kuroshio area in the southeastern part of the sea. The southern Huanghai Sea ranges in depth from a few meters to 103 m, averaging 46 m. The average surface and bottom temperatures are 25-27°C in summer, and 5-lQoC in winter, with salinities of 31-340/00.It is influenced by the cold Huanghai Sea Coastal Current and the Huanghai Sea Cold Water Mass. The northern Huanghai Sea ranges in depth from a few meters to 70 m. Average surface to bottom winter temperatures are 0-5°C; summer temperatures are 25-27°C. Salinity averages 31- 320/00. The Bohai Sea ranges in depth from a few meters to 70 m, averaging 18 m. Three bays surround its central basin. Its yearly average salinity is 300/00.The average surface temperature is 22-28OC, largely influenced by its surrounding continental climate. According to Backus' (1986) map of world biogeographic regions, the East China Sea falls into the northern subtropical region, the southern Huanghai Sea into the northern subtropical to northern temperate regions, and the northern Huanghai Sea and Bohai Sea into the northern temperate bio- geographic region. Previous works wholly or partly touching on the foraminifera of these seas include those of Jacot (1952); Bezrukov et aI. (1958); Polski (1959); Waller and Polski (1959); Cheng and Cheng (1960, 1962, 1963); Zheng, Zheng and Fu (1979); Stschedrina and Lukina (1984); Wang et a1.(1984); Zheng (1988). 192 ZHENG: FORAMINIFERAL TRENDS OF CHINA SEAS 193 Figure 1. Distribution of current systems (after Guan, 1983), Huanghai Sea Cold Water Mass (after He et aI., 1959), Changjiang Diluted Water (after Le, 1980). MATERIALS AND METHODS Study materials were foraminiferal tests from more than 500 surface sediment grab samples collected over a 30-year period from longitudes 118°00-120"00'E and latitudes 26°28'-41°00'N. Collection depths ranged from a few meters to over 2,000 m (Fig. 2). The samples represent great environmental variability; they were collected from semi-enclosed bays, river mouths, vast expanses of continental shelf, and bathyal depths. A unit weight of 50 g of dried sediment was used for quantitative analysis. The samples were washed on a 150 Ilm-opening screen. Foraminifera were floated with carbon tetrachloride (sp. gr. 1.59). Floated concentrates were weighed by torsion balance to obtain total weights per 50 g of sediment. Specimen 194 BULLIETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE, VOL. 47, NO. I, 1990 N Hebel Sh8ndong o Jjongsu JOU .JUU IhoJlang 2U· o ruJ'.n 26° lIU· 120· 122· Figure 2. Location of samples .and Traverses I-III. Isobaths based on the depths of stations where samples were collected. ZHENG: FORAMINIFERAL TRENDS OF CHINA SEAS 195 count for rich concentrates were either of an aliquot or a portion sufficient to demonstrate dominant species and great decline in addition of minor species. The uncounted portion was weighed to obtain the counted portion's weight for calculating total test number per 50 g. The residue was examined for unftoated tests; these were also counted and included in the total test numbers. Benthonic and plank- tonic foraminifera were counted and analyzed separately. Faunal analysis included the determination of specific faunal trends such as taxonomic composition, areal and depth distribution of dominant species (e.g., those species relatively abundant within their samples but ranging in absolute abundance from high to low). It also included determination of non- specific faunal trends such as distribution of absolute abundance, species diversity using the simple diversity index S (Gibson and Buzas, 1973), the Shannon-Wiener index H(S) (Gibson and Buzas, 1973), the faunal variability index V (Walton, 1964), the Buzas-Gibson equitability index D (Buzas and Gibson, 1969), the faunal dominance index D (Walton, 1964), the proportion of shell types (agglutinated, porcelaneous, and hyaline tests), and the ratio of planktonic to benthonic (P/B) foraminif- era (Tipsword et aI., 1966). The five most abundant species in a sample were given decreasing dom- inance ranks of 5,4,3, 2, and I, respectively. Adding the ranks for all occurrences of rank 5-1 species gives the species' total dominance rating for the area where it is dominant (Zheng and Fu, 1988). Thus, species which are dominant (and have environmental significance) are considered, no matter whether their absolute abundances are high, intermediate or low (Table I). ANALYSIS OF DISTRIBUTION Parameters Considered for Benthonic Foraminifera Taxonomic Composition. - A sudden appearance, disappearance or a radical change in abundance of an abundant organism along a transect is usually indicative of a change in environmental conditions (presence of a boundary, Backus, 1986). In this study, results show that ranking changes among the 10 most abundant species define broad geographic differences in environmental regimes. While different regions have dominant species common to each other, each region has its own characteristic taxonomic composition (Tables 1, 2). A north to south transect at longitude 123°30'E, extending from 39°23'N in the northern Huanghai Sea to 26°30' in the East China Sea (Fig. 2), clearly shows increasing change in taxonomic composition with latitude (Table 2). Changes in taxonomic composition across physically generated environmental gradients are clearly evident in a southern transect (Fig. 3) at latitude 27°N, covering longitudes 121-127°E, cutting across the shelf to a depth of 1,300 m. The most marked change occurs at Stn. £196 in the bathyal region where the five most abundant species (Cribrostomoides crassimargo (Norman), Cyclammina pusilla Brady, Tro- chammina globigeriniformis (Parker and Jones), Cribrostomoides subglobosa (G. O. Sars), and Globocassidulina subglobosa (Brady)) differ entirely from those of the preceding station El94 on the slope (Heterolepa cushmani (Ujiie and Kusu- kawa), Spirorutilis fistulosa (Brady), Cribrobigenerina textularioidea (Goes), Len- ticulina calcar (Linne), and Fontbotia wuellerstorfi (Schwager)). Dominant and Indicator Species. - Distributional patterns of many benthonic foraminifera are controlled by and/or correlated positively with the variables that characterize different water masses and which may fluctuate in space and time (Van Morkhoven et aI., 1986). Species, however, have upper depth limits con- strained by biology that may make them useful as depth zone indicators. For example, Rotalinoides gaimardii (d'Orbigny) is the most abundant species in almost all middle to outer shelf samples in the East China Sea. Its relative abun- dance decreases northward, and in the shallower water of the northwestern Huang- hai Sea and the Bohai Sea it is not within the five most dominant species (Table 3). Thus it appears characteristic of middle to outer shelf conditions (though other variables associated with more northerly and inshore locations may playa role). Arenoparrella asiatica (Polski), on the other hand, is very abundant in shallow, nearshore areas (<50 m depth) throughout the area of investigation and may rank 196 BULLETIN OF MARINE SCIENCE,