TY - DATA T1 - Supplemental Text, Tables and Figures from Surrogate taxa and fossils as reliable proxies of spatial biodiversity patterns in marine benthic communities PY - 2017/02/15 AU - Carrie L. Tyler AU - Michał Kowalewski UR - https://rs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Supplemental_Text_Tables_and_Figures_from_Surrogate_taxa_and_fossils_as_reliable_proxies_of_spatial_biodiversity_patterns_in_marine_benthic_communities/4653505 DO - 10.6084/m9.figshare.4653505.v1 L4 - https://ndownloader.figshare.com/files/7587481 KW - β-diversity KW - taphonomy KW - palaeoecology KW - fidelity N2 - Rigorous documentation of spatial heterogeneity (β-diversity) in present day and preindustrial ecosystems is required to assess how marine communities respond to environmental and anthropogenic drivers. However, the overwhelming majority of contemporary and palaeontological assessments have centred on single higher taxa. To evaluate the validity of single taxa as community surrogates and palaeontological proxies, we compared macrobenthic communities and sympatric death assemblages at 52 localities in Onslow Bay (NC, USA). Compositional heterogeneity did not differ significantly across datasets based on live molluscs, live non-molluscs and all live organisms. Death assemblages were less heterogeneous spatially, likely reflecting homogenization by time-averaging. Nevertheless, live and dead datasets were more than 80% congruent in pairwise comparisons to the literature estimates of β-diversity in other marine ecosystems, yielded concordant bathymetric gradients and produced nearly identical ordinations consistently delineating habitats. Congruent estimates from molluscs and non-molluscs suggest that single groups can serve as reliable community proxies. High spatial fidelity of death assemblages supports the emerging paradigm of Conservation Palaeobiology. Integrated analyses of ecological and palaeontological data based on surrogate taxa can quantify anthropogenic changes in marine ecosystems and advance our understanding of spatial and temporal aspects of biodiversity. ER -