Glacial Environments - Trace Fossils as Indicators of Sedimentary Environments - page 289

Chapter 11

Glacial Environments

Renata G. Netto, * ,1 Jacob S. Benner, † Luis A. Buatois, ‡ Alfred Uchman, }
M. Gabriela M ´ ngano, ‡ John C. Ridge, † Vaidotas Kazakauskas } and
Algirdas Gaigalas || , w
*Geology Graduate Program, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos, Sa˜o Leopoldo, Rio Grande do
Sul, Brazil, † Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts,
USA, ‡ Department of Geological Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
Canada, } Institute of Geological Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Krako ´ w, Poland, } Institute of
Geology and Geography, Vilnius, Lithuania,

|| Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Vilnius

University, C ˇ iurlionio, Vilnius, Lithuania
1

Corresponding author: e-mail: [e-mail]

1. INTRODUCTION
Studies using ichnology to improve paleoecological and paleoenvironmental
interpretations in glacial environments are still in their infancy, and most reports
have focused on the characterization of individual trace fossils and trace-fossil
assemblages (e.g., Anderson, 1970, 1975a,b, 1976, 1981; Benner et al., 2008;
Dias-Fabr´cio and Guerra-Sommer, 1989; Fernandes et al., 1987; Gaigalas
and Uchman, 2004; Gibbard and Dreimanis, 1978; Gibbard and Stuart, 1974;
Knecht et al., 2009; Marques-Toigo et al., 1989; Netto and Goso, 1998; Savage,
1970, 1971; Uchman et al., 2008, 2009; Walter, 1985, 1986 ). However, the
number of studies utilizing trace fossils for paleoenvironmental and paleoeco-
logical interpretations in glacial sediments and sedimentary rocks has grown in
the past decade (e.g., Balistieri and Netto, 2002; Balistieri et al., 2002, 2003;
Benner et al., 2009; Buatois and del Papa, 2003; Buatois and M´ngano,
1992, 1993, 1995a,b, 2003; Buatois et al., 2006, 2010; Gandini et al., 2007;
Isbell et al., 2001; Lermen, 2006; Netto et al., 2009; Pazos, 2000, 2002a,b;
Pazos et al., 2007; Schatz et al., 2011a,b; Trewin, 2000; Trewin et al., 2002;
Walter and Suhr, 1998 ).
Glacial environments are complex, as the rapid and spatially variable pro-
cesses common in these environments are seen rarely in other sedimentary sys-
tems ( Menzies, 2002 ). The dynamic interaction of glaciers and ice sheets with
fluvial, eolian, lacustrine, and marine settings generates a great variety of
landforms and facies associations ( Hambrey, 1994 ). The movement of ice sheets

w Deceased.