Model
Digital Document
Publisher
Florida Atlantic University
Description
Encrusters have a proven history as indicators of environmental conditions in nearshore habitats and are useful in both ecological and paleoenvironmental research within benthic ecosystems. Off the coast of Pompano Beach, Florida, a Holocene storm deposit contains large accumulations of subfossil Acropora palmata fragments with these same encrusting organisms attached to their surfaces. The objective of this research was to create an inventory of encrusters found within the storm deposit and document their successional outgrowth to determine the post-depositional history of sampled coral fragments. Foraminifera and coralline algae were the most common species found, and various sequences of successional outgrowth were observed that indicated fragments were either deposited gradually, immediately buried, or reworked after initial burial. This information is vital for understanding modern biodiversity on the Pompano coast, and the development of nearshore benthic marine ecosystems during the mid-late Holocene.
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