FIGURE 2 in Simulating our ability to accurately detect abrupt changes in assemblage-based paleoenvironmental proxies

FIGURE 2. Simulation workflow in the paleontological assemblage mixer (paleoAM). A. Relative abundances of a given species (Epistominella pacifica) from the 355 samples of the 2021 data set, along the empirically derived DCA Axis 1 gradient. B. The per-bin mean of absolute abundance of E. pacifica across all samples within each bin. Absolute abundances are calculated from the relative abundances in A by rescaling the relative abundances to 10000 total specimens. C. Scaled kernel density estimates for E. pacifica, which depict the predicted abundance distribution of E. pacifica along DCA Axis 1 after fitting a kernel density estimate to the absolute abundances in B. D. Scaled kernel density estimates, like in C, for all taxa in the dataset showing their differing predicted abundance distributions along DCA Axis 1 with the kernel density of E. pacifica shown in C marked with an asterisk. E. Visual representation of parameters varied within the simulation along a vertical sediment core. From left to right: standard scenario, increased excursion magnitude, increased background value, increased resolution potential, sampling completeness, bioturbation and increased transition duration. Stacked rectangles represent potential sample intervals. In the first and last column, black dots indicate which intervals are sampled, gray dots indicate unsampled intervals. In the standard scenario, all potential sample intervals are sampled. Curved arrows denote sediment mixing among potential sample intervals.