Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Diagnosis and prediction of variations in the environmental distributions of marine fossil taxa across space and time.

Zaffos, Andrew A

Abstract Details

2014, PhD, University of Cincinnati, Arts and Sciences: Geology.
The distribution of taxa across time and space is controlled by each taxon’s responses to a potentially infinite number of different environmental and biological stimuli. Broader regional patterns of taxonomic distribution, however, are primarily controlled by only a few key environmental variables. The response of taxa to any single environmental variable, determined to be of ecological importance, can be modeled as a Gaussian curve, along which taxa symmetrically rise and fall in abundance in tandem with environmental changes. This “unimodal response curve model” can be used to evaluate a number of prominent hypotheses in community ecology and paleobiology. In this dissertation, such a model is used to understand: patterns of immigration, emigration, extinction, and origination along the global latitudinal gradient throughout the Cenozoic Era (65 mya-Present); patterns of ecological stability playing out over millions of years in the Middle Devonian (Givetian, ~387-382 mya) strata of the northern Appalachian basin; and the impact of geologic preservation and faunal turnover on perceptions of ecological stability between two different ancient marine basins, the Middle Devonian upper Hamilton Group of the northern Appalachian basin and the Upper Ordovician (Cincinnatian, ~454-444 mya) type-Cincinnatian Series of the Cincinnati Arch. Collectively, across all study areas, there is a confluence of evidence for a ubiquitous pattern of conservatism at all scales investigated, with a greater tendency towards smaller changes in the shape and size of response curves than larger ones over timescales ranging from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of years.
Arnold Miller, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
James J. Zambito, IV Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Steven M. Holland, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Carlton Brett, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
David Meyer, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
358 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Zaffos, A. A. (2014). Diagnosis and prediction of variations in the environmental distributions of marine fossil taxa across space and time. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1415625754

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Zaffos, Andrew. Diagnosis and prediction of variations in the environmental distributions of marine fossil taxa across space and time. 2014. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1415625754.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Zaffos, Andrew. "Diagnosis and prediction of variations in the environmental distributions of marine fossil taxa across space and time." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1415625754

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)