Table Of ContentTopics in Geobiology 3
Michael J.S. Tevesz
Peter L. McCall E ditors
Biotic Interactions
in Recent and Fossil
Benthic Communities
Biotic Interactions
in Recent and Fossil
Benthic Communities
TOPICS IN GEOBIOLOGY
Series Editor: F. G. Stehli, University of Oklahoma
Volume 1 SKELETAL GROWTH OF AQUATIC ORGANISMS
Biological Records of Environmental Change
Edited by Donald C. Rhoads and Richard A. Lutz
Volume 2 ANIMAL-SEDIMENT RELATIONS
The Biogenic Alteration of Sediments
Edited by Peter L. McCall and Michael J. S. Tevesz
Volume 3 BIOTIC INTERACTIONS IN RECENT AND FOSSIL
BENTHIC COMMUNITIES
Edited by Michael J. S. Tevesz and Peter L. McCall
Biotic Interactions
in Recent and Fossil
Benthic Communities
Edited by
J.
Michael S. Tevesz
Cleveland State University
Cleveland, Ohio
and
Peter L. Me Call
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Main entry under title:
Biotic interactions in recent and fossil benthic communities.
(Topics in geobiology; v. 3)
1. Paleoecology. 2. Biotic communities. 1. Tevesz, Michael J. S. II. McCall, P. L.
(Peter L.), 1948- . III. Series.
QE720.B56 1983 560'.45 83-13953
ISBN 978-1-4757-0742-7 ISBN 978-1-4757-0740-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-0740-3
© 1983 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Plenum Press, New York in 1983
AII rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced. stored in a retrieval system. Of transmitted
in any form or by any means. electronic, mechanical. photocopying. microfilming.
recording, or otherwise, without written permission rrom the Publisher
Contributors
William I. Ausich Department of Geological Sciences, Wright State Uni
versity, Dayton, Ohio 45435
Richard K. Bambach Department of Geological Sciences, Virginia Po
lytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
David J. Bottjer Department of Geological Sciences, University of South-
ern California, Los Angeles, California 90089 ·
Richard Cowen Department of Geology, University of California, Davis,
California 95616
David Jablonski Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Uni
versity of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
J. B. C. Jackson Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, The Johns
Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218
Susan M. Kidwell Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona,
Tucson, Arizona 85721
Jennifer A. Kitchell Department of Geology and Geophysics, University
of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
Andrew H. Knoll Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology,
Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
David W. Larson Department of Geology, Franklin and Marshall College,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania 17604. Present address: Department of Ge
ology, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York 13323
Jere H. Lipps Department of Geology, University of California, Davis,
California 95616
Peter L. McCall Department of Geological Sciences, Case Western Re
serve University, Cleveland, Ohio 44106
David L. Meyer Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, Cin
cinnati, Ohio 45221
v
vi
Contributors
Donald C. Rhoads Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale Uni
versity, New Haven, Connecticut 06520
J. John Sepkoski, Jr. Department of the Geophysical Sciences, Univer
sity of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637
Peter M. Sheehan Department of Geology, Milwaukee Public Museum,
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53233
Michael J. S. Tevesz Department of Geological Sciences, Cleveland State
University, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Charles W. Thayer Department of Geology, University of Pennsylvania
and Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104
James W. Valentine Department of Geological Sciences, University of
California, Santa Barbara, California 93106
Geerat J. Vermeij Department of Zoology, University of Maryland, Col
lege Park, Maryland 20742
Sarah Ann Woodin Department of Biology, University of South Caro
lina, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
Preface
When Frank Stehli approached us in 1978 to participate in the Topics in
Geobiology series, the idea for this book came easily to mind, because the
role of biotic interactions in controlling the distribution of fossil organ
isms is at once intriguing and problematical. After organizing our own
thoughts on this diffuse subject, we contacted a number of people whom
we knew or suspected were interested in the subject and would be willing
to commit their thoughts to writing and scrutiny. Given the current pauc
ity of knowledge in this area, we encouraged responsible speculation that
might promote further investigation. To maintain some semblance of co
herency, we have limited the contents of this volume to topics largely (but
not exclusively) pertaining to benthic marine invertebrates, the organisms
with the best fossil record. We have not tried to be encyclopedic, because
this would expose an embarrassingly large number of lacunae in the field.
In fact, to a large extent the book has been molded around the response
of our colleagues to our requests for contributions.
This book is divided into four parts. Part I documents the importance
of biotic interactions in Recent benthic marine environments and the pres
ervation of evidence of interactions. A major theme running through
benthic ecological literature from the late 1800s to the present is the rel
ative importance of physical environmental factors such as temperature,
salinity, and subtratum type versus biological factors such as competition,
predation, amensalism, disease, and parasitism. We think it is safe to say
that until fairly recently, most workers, with few exceptions, subscribed
to the notion that biologic interactions had little effect on distribution and
abundance. The dominance of this view may be ascribed in large measures
to the way bottom communities were studied: from the deck of a boat,
with a grab sampler and large-mesh sieve that did not collect early life
stages, and over an area of many square miles. In situ observations and
small-scale observations were difficult to make. These older ideas still
strongly influence many paleoecologists. The first several chapters show,
however, that while physical factors related to phenomena such as sea
sonality affect benthic communities, biotic interactions profoundly affect
species composition and abundance of both hard- and soft-bottom com~
munities.
vii
viii
Preface
Part II documents that biotic interactions are widespread and influ
ential not only in different environments (as demonstrated in Part I) but
also among a number of highly distinct taxonomic groups: prokaryotes,
siliceous phytoplankton (we have included them, contrary to our title,
because of their excellent fossil record and preservation among the ben
thos), benthic foraminifera, and crinoids.
While we think it is apparent that biotic interactions are an important
influence on the structure and dynamics of modern benthic communities,
and are common among particular groups of organisms with excellent
fossil records, the importance of these factors in helping shape ancient
communities and their history is less clear. One goal of paleontology is
to explain the causes behind faunal changes through time. For example,
why did brachiopods decline? Why did trilobites disappear? What are the
reasons for the explosive evolution in the Cambro-Ordovician? Some ex
planations invoke habitat removal or alteration by changing shelf area and
plate motions. Other explanations, like those proposed for modern en
vironments, center around changes in specific aspects of the physical
environment such as temperature, salinity, or oxygen. These may all be
important reasons, and there is often good evidence to support them.
Other potentially important reasons for these changes, such as biotic in
teractions, are too little explored. Nevertheless, a few bold writers have
claimed that local-level interactions have caused large-scale changes in
the biosphere. For instance, the origin and initial adaptive radiations of
metazoans and the rise of angiosperms are believed by some to have been
caused by biotic interactions such as cropping and mutualism, respec
tively.
But hypotheses that give great importance to the role of biotic inter
actions in shaping ancient communities and their history may be attacked
because the fossil record is too incomplete and imprecise to reconstruct
many local-level interactions, and because large-scale changes in the bio
sphere occur over such a long time span that they may be more influenced
by stochastic rather than deterministic factors. The authors of the final
sections of the book attempt to show that biotic interactions of various
sorts are pervasive throughout much of the history of life (Part III) and
have been responsible for influencing a wide variety of phenomena. In
Part IV, evidence is presented to show that biotic interactions have helped
shape the structure, distribution, and evolution of marine benthic com
munities for much of the past 550 million years.
We hope that the several chapters provide an organized presentation
and commentary on the present level of knowledge concerning biotic
interactions and serve to stimulate more thought and research on these
subjects, especially among paleontologists and paleoecologists.
M. J. S. Te\·esz
P. L. McCall
Contents
I. Recent Interactions and Their Preservation
Chapter 1 • Biotic Interactions in Recent Marine Sedimentary
Environments
Sarah Ann Woodin
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1. Common Units of Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2. Organisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3. Categories of Infauna. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2. Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1. Competition in the Recent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2. Competition in the Paleozoic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3. Predation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.1. Types of Predators in the Recent............... 19
3.2. Predation in the Paleozoic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4. Pattern Differentiation: Competition or Predation? . . . . . . 27
5. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter z • Biological Determinants of Present and Past Sessile
Animal Distributions
J. B. C. Jackson
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
2. Organisms and Their Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3. Causes of Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3 .1. The Larval Pool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 7
3.2. Larval Habitat Selection and Interactions with
Previously Settled Organisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3. Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3.4. Predation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
3.5. Mutualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
ix
