Ritsuo Nomura

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages in Osaka Bay, southwestern Japan: faunal changes over the last 50 years

ABSTRACT Live benthic foraminiferal assemblages from surface sediment in Osaka Bay collected in 1999 were analyzed to characterize the distribution of the modern foraminiferal assemblages. Foraminiferal assemblages were compared with those of previous studies to document environmental changes in Osaka Bay over the past 50 years. Sixty-one species of foraminifera belonging to 37 genera were recognized from the 1999 surface sediment samples. An agglutinated assemblage containing Trochammina hadai and Eggerella advena is dominant in the inner part of the bay and is related to eutrophication. The foraminiferal assemblage in areas deeper than about 20 m is composed of Eggerella advena, Ammonia beccarii forma A, and Pseudorotalia gaimardii. This assemblage may be influenced by the large clockwise Okinose Circulation Current which extends throughout the western bay. Foraminiferal assemblages in Osaka Bay have changed dramatically during the last 50 years. The Trochammina hadai-Eggerella advena assemblage became established in the inner part of the bay, reflecting eutrophication that progressed from the 1960s through the 1970s. This assemblage became dominant in 1983, and typically dominated the inner part of the bay. From 1983 to 1999, however, the abundance of taxa belonging to this assemblage decreased greatly following implementation of 1973 Osaka City bylaws that restricted wastewater discharge. Changes in benthic assemblages such as the decrease of Ammonia beccarii forma A and increase of Eggerella advena have occurred in response to decreased incidence of red tides, and floral change in the species that cause these tides. The results of this study demonstrate that the abundance and distribution of benthic foraminifers in Osaka Bay are intimately related to environmental changes related to the urbanization of coastal areas.

Oxygen and carbon isotopic variation in co-existing larger foraminifera from a reef flat at Akajima, Okinawa, Japan

The larger foraminiferal assemblage on the reef flat at Akajima (Ryukyu Island Arc) is comprised of Marginopora kudakajimaensis, Amphisorus hemprichii, Sorites orbiculus, Peneroplis planatus, Heterostegina depressa, Neorotalia calcar, Calcarina gaudichaudii, Baculogypsina sphaerulata and Amphistegina lessonii. The oxygen and carbon isotopic variations in several specimens of each species, living under similar conditions, were examined. Symbiosis had little to no effect on oxygen isotopic composition of the bulk carbonate of the analysed species. The isotopic analysis along the ontogenetic stages indicates near-equilibrium precipitation of oxygen isotopes in the early life stages and, therefore, the initial chambers should be microsampled in isotopic analyses for a better estimate of palaeotemperature. The order of depletion of δ13C parallels the order of accretion of calcium carbonate by the foraminiferal species. A poor correlation between δ18O and δ13C and a large variation in δ18O and δ13C with size of the shell are the characteristic features of the symbiont-bearing benthic foraminifera inhabiting reef flat environments. In a deeper water species oxygen isotopic values vary little with size of the shell.

A foraminiferal proxy record of 20th century sea-level rise in the Manukau Harbour, New Zealand

The present study aimed to extract a sea-level history from northern New Zealand salt-marsh sediments using a foraminiferal proxy, and to extend beyond the longest nearby tide-gauge record. Transects through high-tidal salt marsh at Puhinui, Manukau Harbour, Auckland, New Zealand, indicate a zonation of dominant foraminifera in the following order (with increasing elevation): Ammonia spp.–Elphidium excavatum, Ammotium fragile, Miliammina fusca, Haplophragmoides wilberti–Trochammina inflata, Trochamminita salsa–Miliammina obliqua. The transect sample faunas are used as a training set to generate a transfer function for estimating past tidal elevations in two short cores nearby. Heavy metal, 210Pb and 137Cs isotope analyses provide age models that indicate 35 cm of sediment accumulation since ~1890 AD. The first proxy-based 20th century rates of sea-level rise from New Zealand’s North Island at 0.28 ± 0.05 cm year–1 and 0.33 ± 0.07 cm year–1 are estimated. These are faster than the nearby Auckland tide gauge for the same interval (0.17 ± 0.1 cm year–1), but comparable to a similar proxy record from southern New Zealand (0.28 ± 0.05 cm year–1) and to satellite-based observations of global sea-level rise since 1993 (0.31 ± 0.07 cm year–1).

The impact of fish farming and bank construction on Ostracoda in Uranouchi Bay on the Pacific coast of southwest Japan-Faunal changes between 1954 and 2002/2005

ABSTRACT Uranouchi Bay, an enclosed bay in the southern part of Shikoku Island, southwest Japan, has a complicated geography, being long and narrow with some small inlets. Since 1955, it has been influenced by organic pollution from fish farming. In the spring of 1954, many surface sediment samples were collected in the bay, and were then studied by Ishizaki (1968) to examine ostracode thanatocoenoses. Comparison with this earlier work allows us to investigate faunal changes over this approximately 50-year period. We collected surface sediment and seaweed samples in the bay for ostracode analysis in 2002 and 2005. A total of 124 species were obtained from 29 samples. Comparison between the results suggests that ostracodes have decreased in number in the inner part of the bay and increased greatly in the middle and outer parts of the bay. The number of species and the species diversity has also increased in the middle and outer parts of the bay. Mud dwellers have mostly disappeared from the inner bay and are now found in small inlets in the middle and outer parts of the bay. These changes are caused by the enlargement of areas of anoxic or oxygen-poor bottom waters in the inner part of the bay during the summer. This summer hypoxia is thought to have been brought on by organic pollution from fish farms and the complicated geographical features of the bay. The decrease of inflows of coarse-grained sandy sediments from the outside of the bay, resulting from the intermittent construction of artificial concrete banks in the mouth of the bay in 19461950, 19691974 and 19911996, induced the emergence of preferable environments for a variety of bay and phytal ostracodes in the middle and outer parts of the bay. Valves of phytal species such as xestoleberidid and paradoxostomatid ostracodes increased greatly in the muddy bottoms of the middle part of the bay, where many artificial floating rafts for fish farms are distributed. Seaweed has grown on submerged parts of the floating materials, providing new habitats for phytal ostracodes.

The influences of various anthropogenic sources of deterioration on meiobenthos (Ostracoda) over the last 100 years in Suo-Nada in the Seto Inland Sea, southwest Japan

This study focuses on the relationships of water and sediment quality with meiobenthos (Ostracoda) over the past 100 years, using a sediment core obtained from Suo-Nada in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan. We compared high-resolution ostracode results with geochemical and sedimentological data obtained from the study core as well as with rich environmental monitoring data that are available. R-mode cluster analysis revealed two bioassociations (BC, KA). Until the 1960 s, assemblages continued to show high diversity. They changed in approximately 1970, when excessive nutrients and organic matter began to be supplied, and most species decreased in number. All species of bioassociation BC were dominant again by the mid-1990 s; however, those of bioassociation KA containing infaunal species did not increase and have been absent or rare since the 1970s because organic pollution of sediments has continued to date. This study provided robust baseline for ostracode-based long-term environmental monitoring in East Asia.

Anthropogenic impacts on meiobenthic Ostracoda (Crustacea) in the moderately polluted Kasado Bay, Seto Inland Sea, Japan, over the past 70 years.

Two sediment cores were obtained from Kasado Bay, a moderate-polluted enclosed bay in Japan, to examine anthropogenic impacts on Ostracoda over the past ca. 70 years. We analyzed ostracode abundance and diversity, grain size, and CHN, and used (210)Pb and (137)Cs as the dating method. The present study showed that cross-plot comparisons of ostracode abundance and each environmental factor, based on sediment core data, could be used to identify ostracode species as indicators for anthropogenic influences. Ostracode abundance reflected mainly the changes that had occurred in total organic carbon content in sediments related to eutrophication, but heavy metal concentration did not directly influence several ostracode abundance in the bay. Environmental deterioration because of eutrophication started in the 1960s. The regulations regarding the chemical oxygen demand in waters introduced in the 1980s probably influence ostracode abundance for certain species in this period. Currently, Kasado Bay is not experiencing severe degradation.

Abyssal Benthic Foraminifera in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (IODP Exp 320) During the Middle Eocene

Abstract We report on the faunal transition of benthic foraminifera during the middle Eocene at Site U1333 (4862 m water depth, 3,560–3,720 m paleo-water depth) of Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 320 in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. During the period ∼41.5–40.7 Ma, which includes carbonate accumulation event 3 (CAE-3), the benthic foraminiferal accumulation rate (BFAR) increased gradually and then it declined rapidly. In contrast, BFAR was considerably lower during ∼40.7–39.4 Ma, corresponding to the middle Eocene climatic optimum (MECO), and then it increased during ∼39.3–38.4 Ma, including CAE-4. Diversity (E [S200]) was slightly lower in the upper part of the study interval than in the lower part. The most common benthic foraminifera were Nuttallides truempyi, Oridorsalis umbonatus, and Gyroidinoides spp. in association with Globocassidulina globosa and Cibicidoides grimsdalei during the period studied. Quadrimorphina profunda occurred abundantly with N. truempyi, O. umbonatus, and G. globosa during ∼39.4–38.4 Ma, including CAE-4, although this species was also relatively common in the lower part of the study interval. Virgulinopsis navarroanus and Fursenkoina sp. A, morphologically infaunal taxa, were common during ∼38.8–38.4 Ma, corresponding to the late stage of CAE-4. Based on Q-mode cluster analysis, four sample clusters were recognized and their stratigraphic distributions were generally discriminated in the lower and upper parts of the study interval. Thus, there was only a small faunal transition in the abyssal eastern equatorial Pacific during the middle to late-middle Eocene. The faunal transition recognized in this study may be related to recovery processes following intense carbonate corrosiveness in the eastern equatorial Pacific during MECO. To reference Supplemental Data please click here.

Benthic foraminiferal fauna during the time of the Indian-Asian contact, in southern Balochistan, Pakistan

Cretaceous and early Paleocene benthic foraminifera were studied from one section along the western Gaj River, southern Balochistan, Pakistan, to reconstruct the paleoenvironment of the Tethys Sea during the Indian-Asian contact. We recognize three lithostratigraphic units in ascending order: the Mughal Kot Formation, the Pab Sandstone, and the Jamburo Group. Both the Maastrichtian Mughal Kot Formation, which consists of shale with grey marly limestone, and the Maastrichtian Pab Sandstone, which consists of quartzose sandstone, indicate an open ocean environment as they have diversified planktic and benthic foraminiferal assemblages. The Maastrichtian-Paleocene Jamburo Group, consisting of dark grey, calcareous shale and marlstone with some sulfide grains, is characterized by low diversities of benthic assemblages. The change to the lower diversities may be associated with the development of poor circulation of deeper water that was caused by narrowing of the Tethys Sea. The Trochammina spp. Assemblage from the Jamburo Group, which can be correlated with flysch-type agglutinated foraminiferal assemblages, has a low benthic species diversity, indicating an unfavorable condition for calcareous foraminifera because of the development of oxygen-depleted water. The absolute abundance of agglutinated specimens shows a remarkable change from low numbers in the Maastrichtian to high ones in the Paleocene. The benthic foraminiferal evidence supports the hypothesis that the collision of the Asian and Indian plates occurred near the end of the Cretaceous.

Opening of the closed water area and consequent changes of 228Ra/226Ra activity ratios in coastal lagoon Nakaumi, southwest Japan

In Lake Nakaumi, the second largest coastal lagoon in Japan, artificially closed (Honjyo) area, which was left untouched for 28 years, was partly opened in May, 2009. (228)Ra/(226)Ra ratio of waters in Honjyo area and Lake Nakaumi showed a well-tuned seasonal variation exhibiting high value in summer. After the opening event, however, the (228)Ra/(226)Ra ratios in the Honjyo water showed an unclear seasonal variation in both surface and deep water. This opening event caused the change of active movement of lake and marine water.

A new late Eocene Bicornucythere species (Ostracoda, Crustacea) from Myanmar, and its significance for the evolutionary history of the genus.

The ostracode genus Bicornucythere (Ostracoda, Crustacea) is abundant in modern-day eutrophic marine bays, and is widely distributed in estuaries and inner bays throughout East Asia, including in China, Korea, Japan, and the Russian Far East. The evolutionary history of Bicornucythere is poorly understood. Here, we report on a new species of Bicornucythere (Bicornucythere concentrica sp. nov.) from the upper Eocene Yaw Formation in the Central Myanmar Basin. The oldest previously known Bicornucythere taxon, Bicornucythere secedens, was reported from lower Miocene strata in India, although a molecular phylogeny suggests that the genus first appeared in the Late Cretaceous. Bicornucythere concentrica sp. nov. is at least 10.9 million years older than the earliest known B. secedens. The new species occurs with Ammonia subgranulosa, a benthic foraminifer, an association that is representative of brackish water conditions in modern Asian bays. Our findings indicate that extant genera have inhabited Asian bays since the late Eocene. The paleobiogeography of Bicornucythere indicates that the taxon was dispersed onto Indian coasts during the collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates.