Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 22
Hemipelagic and Pelagic
Basin Plains
Andreas Wetzel * ,1 and Alfred Uchman
*Geologisch-Pala¨ontologisches Institut der Universita¨t, Basel, Switzerland, Institute of Geological
Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Krako ´ w, Poland
1 Corresponding author: e-mail: andreas.wetzel@unibas.ch
1. INTRODUCTION
In the first half of the nineteenth century, trace fossils from bathyal and abyssal
deposits were described as algae (fucoids), without recognition of their deep-sea
origin (e.g., von Fischer-Ooster, 1858 ). For the following decades, the deep sea
was seen often as a mysterious environment because there was no equipment to
observe or to study the deep-sea floor directly. Therefore, deep-sea research,
including ichnology, lagged behind of investigations done in shallow-water
settings.
The potential of trace fossils as ecological indicators markedly increased
when modern environments were studied in addition, because of accessibility,
first in shallow-marine settings ( Richter, 1928; Sch¨fer, 1956 ), and later in the
deep sea (e.g., Eving and Davis, 1967; Heezen and Hollister, 1971; Hollister
et al., 1975; Laughton, 1961 ). Nonetheless, the beginnings of ichnological
research in the modern deep sea dates back to the end of nineteenth century
( Fuchs, 1894 ).
At first, deep-sea trace fossils were related to parameters such as the energy
of the environment (turbidites versus non-turbidites) and indirectly to bathy-
metry ( Seilacher, 1967 ). Then the composition of trace-fossil assemblages
was considered, starting with turbidite successions (see Uchman and Wetzel,
2012 ), later in rather continuously accumulating hemipelagic and pelagic
deposits (e.g., Chamberlain and Clark, 1973; Reineck, 1973 ), especially when
deep-marine deposits became available through the Deep Sea Drilling Project
(e.g., Ekdale, 1977; Warme et al., 1973 ). Subsequently, environmental factors
such as organic-matter content, oxygenation, and sedimentation rate were taken
into account (e.g., Byers, 1977; Edwards, 1985; Savrda et al., 2001; Wetzel,
1981, 1984 ). At the same time, interrelationships between benthic communities
and their dependence on environmental parameters were increasingly addressed
 
 
 
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