See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Field and Quantitative Paleontology, Micropaleontology, and Taxonomy: A Memorial to Roger L. Kaesler
Abstract:
One such area benefitting from Roger's influence is the development of a taxonomic atlas of ostracods from saline lakes on San Salvador Island, Bahamas. Lakes on this tropical island are highly variable with respect to origin, water chemistry, size and tidal influence. Each lake has been examined for ostracods to determine diversity, distribution, and ecophenotypic variability. These data have been compiled and placed into the first taxonomic and geochemical atlas of Caribbean ostracods. This database consists of over 60 senior synonym species records that include morphologic descriptions, ESEM images, distribution maps and geochemical tolerances. From this database, several patterns have emerged regarding species distribution and abundance of these ostracod faunas: 1) lake salinity was found to correlate with alpha diversity with the highest diversity occurring at the calcite branchpoint, 2) there is little correlation between species distribution and geographic proximity and 3) dissimilar faunas occurred in adjacent lakes with similar chemistry.
This database will be made available online and, in time, will be expanded to include the greater Caribbean basin as well as core and stratigraphic distributions, providing a major step toward stabilizing taxonomic concepts of non-marine Caribbean ostracod species.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Field and Quantitative Paleontology, Micropaleontology, and Taxonomy: A Memorial to Roger L. Kaesler