Are Your Paleoecological Indicators Telling the Truth? (2014)

Abstract

Inferring condition from fossil biological assemblages assumes a strong relationship between the variable you want to infer and patterns in the assemblages. In recent years it has become apparent that several species-based indices to infer environmental conditions in paleorecords are providing meaningless results. The following are steps you can take to ensure valid reconstructions. This poster demonstrates a phosphorus inference model based on Great Lakes diatom assemblages, but these methods are easily transferred to many indicators; e.g. foraminifera/sealevel, chironomids/oxygen, diatoms/salinity, etc.