The Marine Micropaleontology Research Group and the Quantitative Stratigraphy Research Group held a joint meeting Monday, April 2, 2007, from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. in Long Beach, California.  The joint meeting was sponsored by NAMS, the North American Micropaleontology Section of SEPM.

The program included three presentations.  The principal speakers were Dr. Claudia J. Schroder-Adams (Carleton University – Ottawa), Dr. David K. Watkins (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), and Dr. Walter S. Snyder (Boise State University).

Schroder-Adams’ presentation “Influence of sediment transport dynamics and ocean floor morphology on benthic foraminifera offshore Fraser Island, Australia” was co-authored by Ron Boyd and Kevin Ruming (University of Newcastle, Australia).  The presentation focused on longshore processes along the SE margin of Australia which transport sand from New South Wales and southern Queensland north towards Fraser Island.  A recent study using multibeam sonar imagery and sediment sampling established that sand is being diverted over the shelf edge into the deep sea through a series of gullies that puncture the slope.  The study revealed that foraminifer assemblages in gullies fed from the shelf edge contained 90% transported species.  Hence, foraminiferal distribution patterns, without consideration of ocean floor processes, could provide erroneous biofacies interpretations.

Watkins’ presentation was titled “Quantitative biostratigraphy versus the fossil record”.  Discussed was a case study that compared upper Maastrichtian core from the South Carolina coastal plain with coeval core from the adjacent continental slope.  The biostratigraphy of coastal plain cores yielded an internally consistent and coherent succession of calcareous nannofossil biohorizons.  Similarly, continental slope cores yielded an internally consistent and coherent biostratigraphic succession of nannofossils.  Though the two cored locales were separated by only a few hundred km, they can not be easily correlated owing to significant differences in species composition and community structure.  Multivariate analyses indicate a strong thermal contrast between the surface waters of the coastal plain and the continental slope.  Hence, a segregation of the two nannofossil populations resulted in complications in correlation between adjacent locales.

Snyder presented “Interactive data systems for sedimentary geology and paleontology – the PaleoStrat example”.  PaleoStrat is building the infrastructure of the GeoSystems Data Portal for deep-time paleoclimate research.  PaleoStrat, part of the larger, national geoinformatics effort, is being developed as an open, comprehensive, and dynamic working environment that hosts an integrated suite of sedimentary, paleontologic, paleobiologic, stratigraphic, geochemical, and geochronologic data, and provides user support for the input, searching, output and synthesis of these data. PaleoStrat and the GeoSystems Data Portal are being built for the community.  As such, and toward building a better system, community feedback, suggestions, and criticisms are welcomed.  What can you do?  Contact PaleoStrat.org for more information. 

The program of this Marine Micropaleontology / Quantitative Stratigraphy group meeting   was organized by Ron F. Waszczak (ConocoPhillips) and H. Rich Lane (National Science Foundation).  The joint session provided an opportunity for networking among paleontologists and stratigraphers working in industry, academia and government.  These 14 attended:

Stacie Blair, Florida State University, blair@quartz.gly.fsu.edu
Robert Campbell, Shell International Exploration, Robert.Campbell@shell.ocm
Tom Dignes, Chevron, twdi@chevron.com
Nancy Engelhardt-Moore, Devon Energy, nancy.engelhardt-moore@dvn.com
Jim Gamber, BP America, Inc., gamberjh@bp.com
Rich Lane, National Science Foundation, hlane@nsf.gov
Ron Martin, University of Delaware, daddy@udel.edu
Pete McLaughlin, Delaware Geological Survey, ppmclau@udel.edu
David McNeil, Geological Survey Canada, dmcneil@nrcan.gc
Claudia Schroder-Adams, Carleton University,  csadams@earthsci.carleton.ca
Walt Snyder, Boise State University,  wsnyder@boisestate.edu
Eva Tuzzi, University of Nebraska, evatuzzi@libero.it
Ron Waszczak, ConocoPhillips, ron.f.waszczak@conocophillips.com
David Watkins, University of Nebraska, dwatkins1@unl.edu