Utility of marine benthic associations as a multivariate proxy of paleobathymetry: a direct test from recent coastal ecosystems of North Carolina.

ABSTRACT: Benthic marine fossil associations have been used in paleontological studies as multivariate environmental proxies, with particular focus on their utility as water depth estimators. To test this approach directly, we evaluated modern marine invertebrate communities along an onshore-offshore gradient to determine the relationship between community composition and bathymetry, compare the performance of various ordination techniques, and assess whether restricting community datasets to preservable taxa (a proxy for paleontological data) and finer spatial scales diminishes the applicability of multivariate community data as an environmental proxy. Different indirect (unconstrained) ordination techniques (PCoA, CA, DCA, and NMDS) yielded consistent outcomes: locality Axis 1 scores correlated wi

SUBMITTER: Tyler CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3994079 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature