Rise and fall of Pliocene free-living corals in the Caribbean

Klaus, James S.; Lutz, Brendan P.; McNeill, Donald F.; Budd, Ann F.; Johnson, Kenneth G.; Ishman, Scott E.

doi:10.1130/g31704.1

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…These corals were also the most stenotopic species -able to tolerate only a narrow range of environmental conditions. Their loss leaves eurytopic, generalist species as the dominants today (Tables 2 & 3 Caribbean, both in recent decades and in the geologic past (Edinger & Risk 1994, Budd & Johnson 1999, Aronson & Precht 2001a, Green et al 2008, Klaus et al 2011, van Woesik et al 2012). The generalists, including Siderastrea spp., Porites spp., Montastraea cavernosa, and Agaricia spp., have withstood a number of recent perturbations, including thermal stress and disease.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotic homogenization of coral assemblages along the Florida reef tract

Burman¹,

Aronson²,

Woesik

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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We tested the hypothesis that coral assemblages along the Florida reef tract have recently become more biologically homogeneous than they were in the past. We used a database that consisted of a probabilistic, 2 stage, stratified-random survey design to assess the condition of stony corals every summer from 2005 to 2010. At each of the 1176 sites in 9 putative subregions, examined over the 6 yr period, all coral colonies > 4 cm were identified to species and their diameters were measured within replicated 10 m 2 belt transects. This approach provided detailed spatial information on the species composition and size-frequency distributions of coral assemblages. Coral assemblages showed a nested relationship, decreasing in diversity and abundance north of 25°40' N. A comparison with previous studies suggested that major declines in recent decades in the primary reef-building corals Acropora palmata, Acropora cervicornis, and Montastraea spp. have homogenized assemblages across depths and reef zones. Of the 9 putative subregions, 6 were found to be redundant on the basis of coral composition. Florida's reefs currently support a simpler coral assemblage than they did in the past, dominated by a small number of eurytopic, generalist species. The assemblages may be more stable now than during the previous several decades, but there has been a fundamental change in their composition and function. Through loss of the dominant reef-building coral species, the reefs of the Florida reef tract have lost the capacity to construct reef framework. KEY WORDS: Biotic homogenization · Coral reef · Florida reef tract · Florida Keys · Corals Resale or republication not permitted without written consent of the publisherMar Ecol Prog Ser 467: [89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96] 2012 Banks et al. 2007). The acroporids built framework off eastern Florida until 6000 yr BP, and have since been restricted to the shelf south of Miami (25°4 5' N), following the mid-Holocene climatic optimum (Banks et al. 2007). Until 1977, coral assemblages north and south of Miami were differentiated based on the presence of the primary reef-building corals Acropora palmata, A. cervicornis, and Montastraea annularis species complex, all of which were more common south of Miami (Agassiz 1885, Vaughan 1919, Marszalek et al. 1977). The major cross-shelf zones south of Miami on the Florida reef tract were likewise defined by A. palmata, which dominated the reef crests; A. cervicornis, which dominated the patch reefs; and M. annularis complex, which dominated the deep fore reefs and patch reefs (Goldberg 1973, Marszalek et al. 1977, Ginsburg et al. 2001. Beginning in the late 1970s, the primary reefbuilding corals suffered extensive declines that were caused largely by coral disease, thermal stress, and mass mortality of the herbivorous echinoid Diadema antillarum (Gladfelter 1982, Rützler et al. 1983, Dustan & Halas 1987, Jackson 1991, Aronson & Precht 2001a, 2001b, Ginsburg et al. 2001, Patterson et al. 2002, Williams & Miller 2005. Over the course ...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biotic homogenization of coral assemblages along the Florida reef tract

Burman¹,

Aronson²,

Woesik

2012

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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“…The advent of this current coincided with the disappearance of large coral reefs from much of the Caribbean. This region's number of coral species continued to increase steadily from the early Miocene through the early Pliocene (Johnson et al ., ), but most of these corals were ahermatypic and lived in seagrass beds along with many species of arborescent bryozoans (Johnson, Budd & Stemann, ; Cheetham & Jackson, ; Klaus et al ., ). Originally, these widely occurring seagrass beds were thought to be over 20 m deep, which suggests clear water (D'Croz & Robertson, ), but in Indonesia such corals now live in seagrass beds in shallow productive water.…”

Section: The Marine Biotamentioning

confidence: 97%

Historical biogeography of theIsthmus ofPanama

2013

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About 3 million years ago (Ma), the Isthmus of Panama joined the Americas, forming a land bridge over which inhabitants of each America invaded the other—the Great American Biotic Interchange. These invasions transformed land ecosystems in South and Middle America. Humans invading from Asia over 12000 years ago killed most mammals over 44 kg, again transforming tropical American ecosystems. As a sea barrier, the isthmus induced divergent environmental change off its two coasts—creating contrasting ecosystems through differential extinction and diversification. Approximately 65 Ma invading marsupials and ungulates of North American ancestry, and xenarthrans of uncertain provenance replaced nearly all South America's non‐volant mammals. There is no geological evidence for a land bridge at that time. Together with rodents and primates crossing from Africa 42 to 30 Ma, South America's mammals evolved in isolation until the interchange's first heralds less than 10 Ma. Its carnivores were ineffective marsupials. Meanwhile, North America was invaded by more competitive Eurasian mammals. The Americas had comparable expanses of tropical forest 55 Ma; later, climate change confined North American tropical forest to a far smaller area. When the isthmus formed, North American carnivores replaced their marsupial counterparts. Although invaders crossed in both directions, North American mammals spread widely, diversified greatly, and steadily replaced South American open‐country counterparts, unused to effective predators. Invading South American mammals were less successful. South America's birds, bats, and smaller rainforest mammals, equally isolated, mostly survived invasion. Its vegetation, enriched by many overseas invaders, remained intact. This vegetation resists herbivory effectively. When climate permitted, South America's rainforest, with its bats, birds and mammals, spread to Mexico. Present‐day tropical American vegetation is largely zoned by trade‐offs between exploiting well‐watered settings versus surviving droughts, exploiting fertile versus coping with poor soil, and exploiting lowland warmth versus coping with cooler altitudes. At the start of the Miocene, a common marine biota extended from Trinidad to Ecuador and western Mexico, which evolved in isolation from the Indo‐Pacific until the Pleistocene. The seaway between the Americas began shoaling over 12 Ma. About 10 Ma the land bridge was briefly near‐complete, allowing some interchange of land mammals between the continents. By 7 Ma, the rising sill had split deeper‐water populations. Sea temperature, salinity and sedimentary carbon content had begun to increase in the Southern Caribbean, but not the Pacific. By 4 Ma, the seaway's narrowing began to extinguish Caribbean upwellings. By 2 Ma, upwellings remained only along Venezuela; Caribbean plankton, suspension‐feeding molluscs and their predators had declined sharply, largely replaced by bottom‐dwelling corals and calcareous algae and magnificent coral reefs. Closing the seaway extinguished the...

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“…Additional microfossil samples were examined by B. Lutz and S. Ishman for planktonic (Lutz, 2008;Lutz et al, 2008) and benthic foraminifera (Lutz, 2008;Klaus et al, 2011). Microfossil occurrence was used to assign numerical ages based upon the time scale of Berggren et al (1995aBerggren et al ( , 1995b, whereas absence or disappearance of a marker species, commonly used in deep-sea biostratigraphy, was ignored because of the relatively shallow, nearshore location of the Cibao Basin deposits.…”

Section: Stratigraphic Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…1), provide one of the most spectacular deposits of late Neogene shallow-marine faunas in the Caribbean. The Neogene section is especially rich in corals, molluscs, and bryozoans (Vokes, 1979;Saunders et al, 1982Saunders et al, , 1986Nehm and Geary, 1994;Budd and Johnson, 1999a;Cheetham et al, 2007;Nehm and Budd, 2008;Klaus et al, 2011). The excellent preservation of fossils in a siliciclastic mud matrix has made the region a favorite for paleontologists, initially with the work of Gabb in 1873, and then by Maury (1917a), Vaughan et al (1921), Vokes (1979Vokes ( , 1989, and Saunders et al (1986).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…(1) the documentation of a fossil-rich shallowwater shelf-margin stratigraphic sequence that defi nes the development of the northern Caribbean region and plate margin, (2) the identifi cation and dating of a late Miocene and Pliocene coral reef sequence that preserved the original reef morphology (and diversity) during signifi cant faunal pre-turnover and turnover time periods (Vaughan, 1919;Frost, 1972Frost, , 1977Budd and Johnson, 1997), and (3) the chronology refi nement of the time frame on order to accurately reconstruct the evolutionary patterns associated with a major taxonomic turnover in corals and molluscs (Jackson et al, 1993;Jackson and Johnson, 2000;Landau et al, 2008) that resulted in the modern Caribbean reefal fauna Budd and Johnson, 1999b;O'Dea et al, 2007;Johnson et al, 2008;Klaus et al, 2011). This overall chrono-and lithostratigraphic reevaluation will provide a community-accessible stratigraphic framework that can be revisited, resampled, and revised as needed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Neogene chronology and sequence stratigraphy of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic deposits of the Cibao Basin, Dominican Republic

McNeill

Klaus

Budd

et al. 2011

Geological Society of America Bulletin

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A stratigraphic study of late MiocenePliocene mixed carbonate and siliciclastic sediment (upper part of the Yaque Group) was conducted in northern Hispaniola to refi ne the chronostratigraphy of uplifted, nearshore marine sequences in the Cibao Basin. Classic late Neogene sections in these sequences include a spectacularly preserved faunal record for the northern Caribbean. Refi ned ages of the Cercado Formation (6.6-6.0 Ma), the Gurabo Formation (ca. 5.8-4.0 Ma), and the Mao Formation (3.9-3.5 Ma) allow correlation to regional and global sea-level events. Each of the three formations corresponds to one depositional sequence, composed of mixtures, at different proportions, of skeletal debris, mostly coral, and mud-size (silt) siliciclastic sediment. Distinct stratal geometries and lithofacies individualize the three formations, each separated by pebble conglomerates. The Cercado Formation depositional sequence consists of prograding inner-shelf siliciclastic sands and patch reefs. The basal transgressive unit of the Gurabo Formation is made of seaward-prograding low-angle clinothems of bedded and burrowed siliciclastic sand with molluscs and free-living corals. The upper Gurabo unit consists of massive middle-shelf clinothems of silt with bedded reef debris and in situ branching coral thickets. These clinothems grade basinward into massive, deeperwater silt deposits at the shelf edge and basin slopes. The Mao Formation sequence records the transition from lowstand fl uvial-deltaic facies to transgressive and highstand marine clinothems made mostly of coral debris in a silt matrix. In the Mao Formation outcrops, the coral-silt clinothems can be divided into at least 10 high-frequency cycles (40 k.y.?) based on lithofacies. Channelized and slumped coarse siliciclastic sand, gravel, and nonmarine alluvium cap the sequence, likely associated with lowered sea level starting at ca. 3.3 Ma and perhaps the onset of regional uplift. The major lithologic and sequence geometry changes in the Cibao Basin correlate with trends in the oxygen isotope ice-volume proxy and likely refl ect deposition responding to major periods of marine transgression and highstand. An especially prominent feature is the major deepening and margin back step near the Miocene-Pliocene boundary, continuing in the early Pliocene, which resulted in the deposition of the Gurabo Formation. Transgression and sea-level highstand in the late-early Pliocene (3.9-3.5 Ma) produced distinctive margin progradation primarily by coral debris. This progradation event was synchronous with progradation in the nearby western Great Bahama Bank. The different stratal confi gurations of the three sequences can be attributed to a combination of factors, including: (1) shelf morphology and location on the shelf, (2) paleoceanographic conditions such as warm sea-surface temperatures and reduced upwelling, which controlled coral productivity and reef geometry, and (3) the infl ux of siliciclastic mud from the adjacent mountains.

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Rise and fall of Pliocene free-living corals in the Caribbean

Cited by 31 publications

References 26 publications

Biotic homogenization of coral assemblages along the Florida reef tract

Biotic homogenization of coral assemblages along the Florida reef tract

Historical biogeography of theIsthmus ofPanama

Late Neogene chronology and sequence stratigraphy of mixed carbonate-siliciclastic deposits of the Cibao Basin, Dominican Republic

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