Stromatoporoid paleoecology of the Southeast margin of the Miette carbonate complex, Jasper Park, Alberta

The Miette carbonate complex, exposed at Slide Creek and Section Creek in Jasper National Park, Alberta, provides an opportunity for the study of the interior margin and backreef of a Devonian carbonate complex.

Near the complex margin, massive stromatoporoids were more successful than those in the backreef environments, and are sometimes found fragmented; branching forms are found both fragmented and current-oriented.

The seven stromatoporoid morphologies found at Slide Creek (hemispherical, irregular, tabular, bulbous, encrusting, delicate branching, and robust branching) are either positively or randomly associated in paired combinations.

The life-table analysis and size-frequency distributions are useful in the study of stromatoporoid paleoecology and show that stromatoporoid populations had many characteristics common to other metazoan reef and level-bottom communities in both modern and ancient environments.

Eight stromatoporoid communities, made up by the eighteen observed species, are outlined by their positions relative to the complex margin and the stratigraphic member in which they occur; they show that species distribution varied across the Miette complex and changed dramatically with time.