Contemporary Salt-Marsh Foraminifera from Southern California and Implications for Reconstructing Late Holocene Sea-Level Changes

Simona Avnaim-Katav; Ed Garrett; Willem Roland Gehrels; Lauren N Brown; Thomas K Rockwell; Alexander R Simms; John Michael Bentz; Glenn M MacDonald

doi:10.2113/gsjfr.53.2.157

Contemporary Salt-Marsh Foraminifera from Southern California and Implications for Reconstructing Late Holocene Sea-Level Changes

Simona Avnaim-Katav^*, Ed Garrett, Willem Roland Gehrels, Lauren N Brown, Thomas K Rockwell, Alexander R Simms, John Michael Bentz, Glenn M MacDonald

^*Corresponding author for this work

Environment and Geography

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

We report on the distribution of contemporary foraminifera in salt marshes in Mission Bay and Carpinteria Slough, Southern California. Combining these data with existing datasets from Seal Beach and Tijuana, we explore the potential for a regional training set to underpin quantitative reconstructions of paleoenvironmental change from foraminifera preserved in salt-marsh sediments. We demonstrate that species’ distributions are highly dependent on elevation, suggesting fossil foraminiferal assemblages here, as in many other regions, are useful depositional elevation indicators. Transfer functions provide predictions from Mission Bay cores with decimeter-scale uncertainties. Nevertheless, interpretation of marsh-surface elevation change is complicated by a complex geomorphic setting and anthropogenic impacts. An abrupt change in elevation in the mid-1700s may be related to lateral spreading of water-saturated sediments during an earthquake on the Rose Canyon fault, suggesting the potential for foraminifera to support new palaeoseismic and sea-level records for the region.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	157-176
Journal	Journal of Foraminiferal Research
Volume	53
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.2113/gsjfr.53.2.157
Publication status	Published - 12 Apr 2023

Access to Document

10.2113/gsjfr.53.2.157Licence: CC BY

i1943-264x-53-2-157Final published version, 7.9 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{b6a04e30e57c4bc0b766ce2a70a6f763,

title = "Contemporary Salt-Marsh Foraminifera from Southern California and Implications for Reconstructing Late Holocene Sea-Level Changes",

abstract = "We report on the distribution of contemporary foraminifera in salt marshes in Mission Bay and Carpinteria Slough, Southern California. Combining these data with existing datasets from Seal Beach and Tijuana, we explore the potential for a regional training set to underpin quantitative reconstructions of paleoenvironmental change from foraminifera preserved in salt-marsh sediments. We demonstrate that species{\textquoteright} distributions are highly dependent on elevation, suggesting fossil foraminiferal assemblages here, as in many other regions, are useful depositional elevation indicators. Transfer functions provide predictions from Mission Bay cores with decimeter-scale uncertainties. Nevertheless, interpretation of marsh-surface elevation change is complicated by a complex geomorphic setting and anthropogenic impacts. An abrupt change in elevation in the mid-1700s may be related to lateral spreading of water-saturated sediments during an earthquake on the Rose Canyon fault, suggesting the potential for foraminifera to support new palaeoseismic and sea-level records for the region.",

author = "Simona Avnaim-Katav and Ed Garrett and Gehrels, {Willem Roland} and Brown, {Lauren N} and Rockwell, {Thomas K} and Simms, {Alexander R} and Bentz, {John Michael} and MacDonald, {Glenn M}",

year = "2023",

month = apr,

day = "12",

doi = "10.2113/gsjfr.53.2.157",

language = "English",

volume = "53",

pages = "157--176",

journal = "Journal of Foraminiferal Research",

issn = "0096-1191",

publisher = "Cushman Foundation",

number = "2",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Contemporary Salt-Marsh Foraminifera from Southern California and Implications for Reconstructing Late Holocene Sea-Level Changes

AU - Avnaim-Katav, Simona

AU - Garrett, Ed

AU - Gehrels, Willem Roland

AU - Brown, Lauren N

AU - Rockwell, Thomas K

AU - Simms, Alexander R

AU - Bentz, John Michael

AU - MacDonald, Glenn M

PY - 2023/4/12

Y1 - 2023/4/12

N2 - We report on the distribution of contemporary foraminifera in salt marshes in Mission Bay and Carpinteria Slough, Southern California. Combining these data with existing datasets from Seal Beach and Tijuana, we explore the potential for a regional training set to underpin quantitative reconstructions of paleoenvironmental change from foraminifera preserved in salt-marsh sediments. We demonstrate that species’ distributions are highly dependent on elevation, suggesting fossil foraminiferal assemblages here, as in many other regions, are useful depositional elevation indicators. Transfer functions provide predictions from Mission Bay cores with decimeter-scale uncertainties. Nevertheless, interpretation of marsh-surface elevation change is complicated by a complex geomorphic setting and anthropogenic impacts. An abrupt change in elevation in the mid-1700s may be related to lateral spreading of water-saturated sediments during an earthquake on the Rose Canyon fault, suggesting the potential for foraminifera to support new palaeoseismic and sea-level records for the region.

AB - We report on the distribution of contemporary foraminifera in salt marshes in Mission Bay and Carpinteria Slough, Southern California. Combining these data with existing datasets from Seal Beach and Tijuana, we explore the potential for a regional training set to underpin quantitative reconstructions of paleoenvironmental change from foraminifera preserved in salt-marsh sediments. We demonstrate that species’ distributions are highly dependent on elevation, suggesting fossil foraminiferal assemblages here, as in many other regions, are useful depositional elevation indicators. Transfer functions provide predictions from Mission Bay cores with decimeter-scale uncertainties. Nevertheless, interpretation of marsh-surface elevation change is complicated by a complex geomorphic setting and anthropogenic impacts. An abrupt change in elevation in the mid-1700s may be related to lateral spreading of water-saturated sediments during an earthquake on the Rose Canyon fault, suggesting the potential for foraminifera to support new palaeoseismic and sea-level records for the region.

U2 - 10.2113/gsjfr.53.2.157

DO - 10.2113/gsjfr.53.2.157

M3 - Article

SN - 0096-1191

VL - 53

SP - 157

EP - 176

JO - Journal of Foraminiferal Research

JF - Journal of Foraminiferal Research

IS - 2

ER -