Biotic Interactions in Recent Marine Sedimentary Environments

Explanation of patterns of the distribution and abundance of organisms is the primary intellectual domain of the ecologist and often of the paleoecologist. Regardless of the investigative techniques employed, the patterns are usually explained by invoking physical or biotic factors or some combination of the two. Investigators in the Recent may then attempt to substantiate their hypothesis by manipulating the assemblage in some way (see Connell, 1975, for examples) or by observing the behaviors of the organisms (see Morse, 1980). Here I attempt to present a partial summary of the evidence from the Recent that suggests that biotic factors are important and that particular patterns may be associated with the importance of these factors. I will ignore physical factors due to lack of space.