Hurricane Effects on Molluscan Death Assemblages and Their Facies
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HURRICANE EFFECTS ON MOLLUSCAN DEATH ASSEMBLAGES AND THEIR FACIES by ERIC J. WYSONG (Under the Direction of Sally Walker) ABSTRACT Hurricanes are major agents in sediment transport, but modern coral reef studies indicate that limited transport occurs among molluscan death assemblages. Such studies were largely conducted in environments with partially restricted bays that may limit transport. In contrast, few studies have been conducted in open-coastal reef environments. Three open-coastal leeward reef sites were studied in San Salvador, Bahamas, four and eight months following Hurricane Frances to determine the degree of out-of-habitat transport (habitat mixing) in molluscan skeletal assemblages. Results indicate that: (1) habitat mixing is the norm; (2) consequently, the taxonomic compositions of death assemblages do not vary greatly between substrates; but, (3) diversity metrics and frequency of fragmentation are better differentiators between substrates and temporal intervals following the hurricane. As a result of storms/hurricanes, these environments are constantly being mixed; therefore, interpretation of the ecological fidelity of molluscs within fossil patch reefs must proceed cautiously. INDEX WORDS: Patch reef, Mollusc, Death assemblage, Hurricane, Spatial fidelity, Sediment transport HURRICANE EFFECTS ON MOLLUSCAN DEATH ASSEMBLAGES AND THEIR FACIES by ERIC J. WYSONG B.S., University of Cincinnati, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The University of Georgia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF SCIENCE ATHENS, GEORGIA 2008 © 2008 Eric J. Wysong All Rights Reserved HURRICANE EFFECTS ON MOLLUSCAN DEATH ASSEMBLAGES AND THEIR FACIES by ERIC J. WYSONG Major Professor: Sally Walker Committee: Steven M. Holland L. Bruce Railsback Electronic Version Approved: Maureen Grasso Dean of the Graduate School The University of Georgia May 2008 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my major advisor Sally Walker for the tremendous amount of time and support that she has put into this project. Her enthusiasm and excitement for geology in the field and classroom is second to none. I am greatly indebted to her for all that she has done for me in every aspect of my experience at the University of Georgia. Additionally, I would like to thank my committee members Steve Holland and Bruce Railsback for their continuous support. I am tremendously grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from them through multiple field experiences, classes, and throughout this research project. I would also like to thank Beatriz Stephens for her crucial guidance and assistance in administrative processes as well as for always lending a listening ear. Finally, data collection was facilitated by three exceptional field assistants who kindly sacrificed their time in the Bahamas: Karla Hubbard, Lisa Gardiner, and Lauren Dale. This work was funded by the generous support of the Wheeler-Watts Fund, the Geological Society of America, the Levy Fund, and the Paleontological Society. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................................................... iv LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................ vii LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1 Introduction....................................................................................................................1 Purpose of Study .......................................................................................................1 Molluscan Skeletal Remains and Hurricane Studies.................................................4 Hurricane Effects on Reefal Sediments.....................................................................6 Spatial Fidelity of Molluscan Hardparts ...................................................................8 2 Methods........................................................................................................................14 Geologic Setting......................................................................................................14 Hurricane Frances....................................................................................................15 Field Methods..........................................................................................................16 Transect Substrate Descriptions ..............................................................................18 Laboratory Methods ................................................................................................20 Treatment of Molluscs in Relation to Spatial Fidelity ............................................21 Fragmented Ratios...................................................................................................21 Diversity Metrics.....................................................................................................22 Statistical Analyses..................................................................................................23 v 3 Results..........................................................................................................................26 Dataset Composition ...............................................................................................26 Live:Dead Distributions by Time and Transect ......................................................27 Contributions of Rare and Abundant Taxa..............................................................29 Out-of-Habitat Transport of Molluscan Skeletal Remains......................................32 Relative Contributions of Gastropods and Bivalves ...............................................35 Patterns of Hermitting within the Dataset ...............................................................35 Patterns of Gastropod Fragmentation within the Dataset........................................36 Diversity Metrics.....................................................................................................37 Ordination Techniques Compared...........................................................................42 Cluster Analyses of Beach-to-Reef Transects.........................................................47 4 Discussion....................................................................................................................51 Comparison of Transects.........................................................................................51 Comparison of Substrates........................................................................................52 Post-Hurricane Temporal Differences in Death Assemblages................................54 5 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................57 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................59 APPENDICES ...............................................................................................................................64 A Detailed Site Notes ......................................................................................................65 B Molluscan Substrate Affinities ....................................................................................69 C Percent of Molluscs by Substrate Preference...............................................................73 D Mollusc Counts ............................................................................................................75 vi LIST OF TABLES Page Table 1: Modern reef studies concerning spatial fidelity...............................................................13 Table 2: Length, number of sites, and depth range for each of the three transects........................17 Table 3: Generalized descriptions of environment types...............................................................19 Table 4: Numbers of live molluscs and dead molluscs found by month and by transect..............26 Table 5: Live-dead fidelity determined for all data combined, data for each individual reef sites, and data for each substrate type ....................................................................................28 Table 6: Abundances of individual taxa and their percent contributions to the entire dataset ......30 Table 7: Percent of molluscs collected with specific habitat preferences .....................................32 Table 8: Percent of gastropods shells found hermitted at time of collection.................................36 Table 9: Mean gastropod fragmented ratios and t-tests of January versus June............................37 Table 10: Statistical comparisons of fragmented ratios between substrates types ........................37 Table 11: Diversity metrics by transect and month .......................................................................39 Table 12: Statistical comparisons of mean diversity metrics between substrates using 95% confidence intervals from Welch 2-sample t-tests ........................................................41 Table 13: Pearson Correlations Coefficients and associated confidence intervals between MDS and DCA axes for multivariate ordinations of abundant taxa only...............................46 vii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Map showing location of San Salvador