1 / 29

FORAYS WITH FORAMS

FORAYS WITH FORAMS. Photo Credit: psammophile. OBJECTIVES. Introduce basic background information about forams as modern and fossil living organisms Examine forams ’ distinctive role as “proxies” for palaeoecology , palaeoclimatology , and water quality reconstructions

onawa
Download Presentation

FORAYS WITH FORAMS

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. FORAYS WITH FORAMS Photo Credit: psammophile

  2. OBJECTIVES • Introduce basic background information about forams as modern and fossil living organisms • Examine forams’ distinctive role as “proxies” for palaeoecology, palaeoclimatology, and water quality reconstructions • Use planktonic forams to reconstruct ocean evidence of changing climate • Use benthic foramsto track changing environmental conditions in the Chesapeake Bay

  3. Foraminifera (“Forams”) • One-celled organisms • Widespread through the oceans, coastal zones, & estuaries – planktonic & benthic • “Tests” = shells • Approximately the size of sand grains • Made of CaCO3 or sediment particles • Fossil tests preserved in ocean sediment layers • Many modern species have existed for millions of years – scientists can study these “proxies” today! • Important in climate & water quality reconstructions

  4. Living Forams Photo Credits: Dr. Howard Spero, University of California – Davis

  5. Photo Credit: psammophile Fossil Foram Tests

  6. Fossil Foram Tests Photo Credits: Michael Hesemann, http://www.foraminifera.eu

  7. 3-D and 3-D “Cat-Scan” Views G. menardii G. siphonifera G. inflata N. pachyderma P. obliquiloculata G. ruber N. dutertrei G. sacculifer G. bulloides Molcer 3-D image viewer software: White Rabbit Corporation, http://www.white-rabbit.jp/molcerE.html e-Foram Stock files of forams – Tohoku University Museum, Japan - http://webdb2.museum.tohoku.ac.jp/e-foram/

  8. Foraminifera Sculpture Park in Guangzhou Province, China Photo: www.sciencemag.org

  9. Apple Pie Decorated With Marzipan Forams!! Photo: Hannes Grobe/AWI

  10. ACTIVITY USING PLANKTONIC FORAMS TO DETERMINE OCEAN CLIMATE HISTORY – NEW ZEALAND

  11. OBJECTIVES • Identify foram species indicative of foraminiferal provinces (ocean climate regions) • Use graphs of species percentages to determine foraminiferal provinces for several samples from a single ocean core • Determine how ocean climate changed during the time period represented by the samples, and examine possible causes

  12. Foraminiferal Provinces Transitional FORAMINIFERAL PROVINCES

  13. Location of Core Ocean sediment core

  14. USE FORAMS TO FIND THE OCEAN CLIMATE HISTORY IN THIS AREA OCEAN SEDIMENT CORE SOUTHEAST OF NEW ZEALAND’S NORTH ISLAND Layer 1 10,000 ybp Layer 2 15,000 ybp Layer 3 20,000 ybp ybp = years before present

  15. EACH “SLICE” OF THE PIE CHART = 5%

  16. Subtropical THIS IS JUST AN EXAMPLE !! YOUR ACTUAL NUMBERS & PIE CHART WILL PROBABLY BE DIFFERENT !!

  17. ACTIVITY CHESAPEAKE BAY: BENTHIC FORAMS AS ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS

  18. OBJECTIVES • Identify key benthic foram species in several samples from a core of Chesapeake Bay sediment • Calculate species percentages in each sample • Determine trends in environmental conditions in the Bay’s watershed during the time period represented by the samples and examine possible causes

  19. EUTROPHICATION Nutrient pollution fuels the growth of algae blooms that block sunlight from reaching bay grasses and rob the water of oxygen needed by the Bay’s living organisms Photo: US EPA Chesapeake Bay Program

  20. EUTROPHICATION Image Credit: http://www.wri.org/image/nutrient-deposition

  21. BENTHIC FORAMS AS ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS • Presence of certain “opportunistic” species that are tolerant of “stressed” environmental conditions (low dissolved oxygen, change in salinity, heavy metals & other pollutants) – will become abundant in the stressed ecosystem • Some species exposed to extreme pollution or other extreme environmental stressors may produce deformed tests

  22. New York Pennsylvania CORE SAMPLE FROM TIDAL PATUXENT RIVER Maryland Delaware West Virginia D.C. Virginia Chesapeake Bay Watershed

  23. BENTHIC FORAMS AS CLUES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES IN THE CHESAPEAKE BAY WATERSHED 1990 SEDIMENT CORE TIDAL PATUXENT RIVER, MARYLAND 1975 1965 CALENDAR YEAR DATES OF SAMPLED LAYERS 1900 1850 1800 1750 FORAM SAMPLES FROM CORE LAYERS

  24. 2 10

  25. BALDCYPRESS TREE RINGS BLACKWATER RIVER SOUTHEASTERN VIRGINIA Photo: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1301/features/climatology.htm

More Related