Taphonomic Feedback Ecological Consequences of Shell Accumulation

Sequential changes in benthic community composition have frequently been attributed by marine ecologists and paleontologists to autogenic ecologic succession in the classical sense: a biotically driven process leading to the establishment of a stable climax or mature community (Margalef, 1968; Odum, 1969). In recent years, however, the concepts of deterministic autogenic succession have been modified and supplemented by a greater recognition of the roles of stochastic colonization and of biogenic and physical disturbance in structuring ecological communities in time and space (Colinvaux, 1973; Drury and Nisbet, 1973; Sutherland, 1974, 1981; Horn, 1974, 1976; Connell and Slayter, 1977; Connell, 1978; Lubchenco, 1978; Sousa, 1979a, 1980; White, 1979; Paine and Levin, 1981). Paleontologists have also begun to adopt a more critical approach, recognizing the many processes, both biotic and abiotic, that serve as driving mechanisms for sequential faunal changes.