Profile of Biogenic Sedimentary Structures in Holocene Barrier Island--Salt Marsh Complex, Georgia: ABSTRACT

Abstract

Biogenic sedimentary structures, many of which are characteristic of particular depositional environments, are abundant among Holocene barrier island-salt marsh habitats of coastal Georgia. The major environments represented are (1) beaches, including the shoreface, lower and upper foreshore, backshore, dunes, and washover fans; (2) salt marshes, consisting of the low marsh, high marsh, and salt pans; and (3) estuaries and tidal streams, including channel deposits, point bars, stream banks, and natural levees. Biogenic sedimentary structures in these environments consist of bioturbate textures and tracks, trails, burrows, and dwelling tubes, and are produced chiefly by polychaetes, gastropods, pelecypods, decapods, amphipods, and insects. Such structures, either singly or as assemblages of lebensspuren, are ordinarily sufficient to delimit major habitats. Further, most of these structures are capable of preservation, and many of them have been documented in the Pleistocene of Georgia and Florida. End_of_Article - Last_Page 2036------------