Geology topics

D.G. Fautin

Publications and source records attributed to D.G. Fautin.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2011

OBIS-USA: a data-sharing legacy of the census of marine life

The United States Geological Survey's Biological Informatics Program hosts OBIS-USA, the US node of the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). OBIS-USA gathers, coordinates, applies standard formats to, and makeswidely available data on biological collections in marine waters of the United States and other areas where US investigators have collected data and, in some instances, specimens. OBIS-USA delivers its data to OBIS international, which then delivers its data to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) and other Web portals for marine biodiversity data. OBIS-USA currently has 145 data sets from 36 participants, representing over 6.5 million occurrence records of over 83,000 taxa from more than 888,000 locations. OBIS-USA, a legacy of the decade-long (2001-2010) international collaborative Census of Marine Life enterprise, continues to add data, including those from ongoing Census projects. Among the many challenges in creating OBIS, including OBIS-USA, were developing a community of trust and shared valueamong data providers, and demonstrating to providers the value of making their data accessible to others. Challenges also posed by the diversity of data sets relevant tomarine biodiversity stored on thousands of computers, in a variety of formats, not all widely accessible, have been met in OBIS-USA by implementing a uniform standard and publishing platform that is easily accessible to a broad range of users.

Oceanography↗

USGS2006

Modeling habitat distribution from organism occurrences and environmental data: Case study using anemonefishes and their sea anemone hosts

We demonstrate the KGSMapper (Kansas Geological Survey Mapper), a straightforward, web-based biogeographic tool that uses environmental conditions of places where members of a taxon are known to occur to find other places containing suitable habitat for them. Using occurrence data for anemonefishes or their host sea anemones, and data for environmental parameters, we generated maps of suitable habitat for the organisms. The fact that the fishes are obligate symbionts of the anemones allowed us to validate the KGSMapper output: we were able to compare the inferred occurrence of the organism to that of the actual occurrence of its symbiont. Characterizing suitable habitat for these organisms in the Indo-West Pacific, the region where they naturally occur, can be used to guide conservation efforts, field work, etc.; defining suitable habitat for them in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific is relevant to identifying areas vulnerable to biological invasions. We advocate distinguishing between these 2 sorts of model output, terming the former maps of realized habitat and the latter maps of potential habitat. Creation of a niche model requires adding biotic data to the environmental data used for habitat maps: we included data on fish occurrences to infer anemone distribution and vice versa. Altering the selection of environmental variables allowed us to investigate which variables may exert the most influence on organism distribution. Adding variables does not necessarily improve precision of the model output. KGSMapper output distinguishes areas that fall within 1 standard deviation (SD) of the mean environmental variable values for places where members of the taxon occur, within 2 SD, and within the entire range of values; eliminating outliers or data known to be imprecise or inaccurate improved output precision mainly in the 2 SD range and beyond. Thus, KGSMapper is robust in the face of questionable data, offering the user a way to recognize and clean such data. It also functions well with sparse datasets. These features make it useful for biogeographic meta-analyses with the diverse, distributed datasets that are typical for marine organisms lacking direct commercial value. ?? Inter-Research 2006.

Marine Ecology Progress Series↗

USGS2004

Adaptive bleaching: A general phenomenon

Laboratory and field data bearing on the adaptive bleaching hypothesis (ABH) are largely consistent with it; no data of which we are aware refute it. We generalize the ABH in light of these data and observations. The population of zooxanthellae within an organism is dynamic, the diversity of zooxanthellae is both surprising and difficult to ascertain, and field experiments demonstrate both turn-over in zooxanthella types and habitat-holobiont correlations. Dynamic change in symbiont communities, and the idea of an equilibrium or optimal community that matches the environment at a particular place and time, are concepts that underlie or emerge from much of the recent literature. The mechanism we proposed to explain responses to acute bleaching appears to operate continuously, thereby enabling the host-symbiont holobiont to track even subtle environmental changes and respond promptly to them. These findings enhance the potential importance of the ABH in the outcomes of acute bleaching, which can (1) accelerate this process of holobiont change, and (2) change the set of possible trajectories for how symbiont communities might recover.

Conference Paper↗

USGS2004

Distribution of sea anemones (Cnidaria, Actiniaria) in Korea analyzed by environmental clustering

Using environmental data and the geospatial clustering tools LOICZView and DISCO, we empirically tested the postulated existence and boundaries of four biogeographic regions in the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Environmental variables used included wind speed, sea surface temperature (SST), salinity, tidal amplitude, and the chlorophyll spectral signal. Our analysis confirmed the existence of four biogeographic regions, but the details of the borders between them differ from those previously postulated. Specimen-level distribution records of intertidal sea anemones were mapped; their distribution relative to the environmental data supported the importance of the environmental parameters we selected in defining suitable habitats. From the geographic coincidence between anemone distribution and the clusters based on environmental variables, we infer that geospatial clustering has the power to delimit ranges for marine organisms within relatively small geographical areas.

Conference Paper↗

USGS2000

Alternating seismic uplift and subsidence in the late Holocene at Madang, Papua New Guinea: Evidence from raised reefs

Well-preserved mid-late Holocene coral reefs are exposed in low coastal cliffs in the vicinity of the Madang lagoon on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. Results from U/Th and 14 C dating of corals, surveying, and field mapping indicate several major changes in relative sea level over this period. Specifically, there is evidence for a relative sea level fall of ≥4.5 m about 3000 calendar years B.P., followed by relative sea level rises of ∼1.5 m about 2400 calendar years B.P. and ≥0.5 m about 1200 calendar years B.P. and a subsequent relative sea level fall of ≥3 m some time in the past 1000 years. Since regional eustatic sea levels are believed to have been dropping gradually over this time frame, these observed changes in relative sea level are interpreted as reflecting alternating tectonic uplift and subsidence. Furthermore, the detailed structure and age relationships of the coral deposits indicate that both uplift and subsidence occurred rapidly, most probably as coseismic events with vertical displacements of 0.5 to 4.5 m. These events may be related to rupture on NW-SE trending reverse faults which have been mapped in the nearby Adelbert Range and possibly on NE trending cross faults which have been inferred from seismicity. This interpretation implies a much greater degree of tectonic instability and potential seismic hazard in the region than previously recognized, although the inferred coseismic vertical displacements are shown to be consistent with present-day local seismicity. In a broader context, the study illustrates how detailed analysis of vertical changes in coral reef structure and assemblages may be used as a sensitive indicator of changing relative sea level, capable of resolving century timescale events and reversals.

Madang↗