[Coral-List] Topical Session Description

[Ben Greenstein]

See below for description of GSA topical session
Topical Session T113:  Applied Reef Coral Paleoecology


Topic:  Application of paleoecological studies of fossil coral reefs  
to sedimentologic and ecologic problems.


Possible Subject Areas to be Included:

a) Response of reef coral communities to climate change.

b) Comparative taphonomy and sedimentology of fossil reef coral  
assemblages.

c) Taphonomic approaches to discriminating between reef subfacies.

d) Paleoecological evidence for rapid (sub-orbital scale)  
fluctuations in sea level.

e) Mechanics of the radiation of the modern reef coral fauna.

Rationale:  Studies of Tertiary and Quaternary reef coral communities  
have increasingly been applied to issues related to the modern reef  
system. Reef coral assemblages from these time intervals are often  
remarkably preserved; hence paleoecological studies that reveal their  
long-term ecological dynamics are especially robust. A fuller  
understanding of the response of reef coral communities to changes in  
climate, ocean circulation patterns and origination and extinction  
events is beginning to emerge from recent paleoecologic,  
sedimentologic and taphonomic research. The goal of the session is  
bring workers in these and related fields together to share their  
results and discuss how they may be used to predict responses of  
modern reef communities to the spectrum of disturbances observed today.

  Format:  Oral



**********************************
Benjamin J. Greenstein Ph.D.
Professor of Geology
Cornell College
600 First St. West
Mt. Vernon, IA 52314
USA

PH: 319-895-4307
FAX: 319-895-5667
WEB: http://www.cornellcollege.edu/geology/greenstein