Michael Martinez-Colon

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• PhD
• Professor (Associate) at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University

This review examines environmental factors affecting potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in coastal waters with the goal of proposing ways to enhance the use of benthic foraminifers as bioindicators of such pollution. Pollution of coastal systems by PTEs, often referred to as heavy metals, is a major concern for scientists, resource managers, and reg...

Foraminiferal assemblages (Ammonia becarii cf. typica - A. becarii cf. tepida - Triloculina spp.) from 30 cm cores taken at Laguna Torrecilla, a polluted estuary, contain a relative high occurrence of deformed tests (up to 13%). Such deformities (i.e., double tests, aberrant tests) are mostly found within the miliolids (Triloculina spp.) while the...

This study investigated the effects of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) on the spatial distribution of benthic foraminifera in Jobos Bay, a National Estuarine Research Reserve in Puerto Rico. High PTE total concentrations (Cr-Cu-Zn-Mn-Hg) clustered around anthropogenic sources where “moderately polluted” to “moderate-heavily polluted” conditions p...

Puerto Rico is prone to hurricanes capable of billions of dollars in property and infrastructure damage from heavy rainfall and severe storm surge flooding. Regional historical records are sparse, limiting an understanding of past hurricane trends to enact sensible risk assessment. Sedimentological reconstructions can determine hurricane activity o...

Foraminifera could be used as indicators to evaluate the impacts of oil spills because the crude oil causes several disturbances on the development and reproduction of the species. However, little is known about the relationship between mangrove species and this pollutant. Foraminiferal assemblages were studied in 22 surface sediment samples collec...

Sediment sequences spanning the 12,800-year-old lower Younger Dryas boundary (YDB) were investigated at three widely separated sites in eastern North America (Parsons Island, Maryland, a Newtonville sandpit in southern New Jersey, and Flamingo Bay, South Carolina). All sequences examined exhibit peak abundances in platinum (Pt), microspherules, and...

Jobos Bay, southeastern Puerto Rico, experiences strong environmental gradients between an historically impacted coastal-plain and oligotrophic Caribbean waters. The coastal zone is dynamic both seasonally and interannually. During 2018-2019, water quality, sediments, and benthic-foraminif-eral assemblages were assessed from fore-and back-reef site...

Elemental seawater concentrations of many trace elements have been collected through the analyses of benthic foraminiferal calcite. In addition, laboratory experiments have been conducted to determine the effect of various concentrations of these elements. Furthermore, analyses of foraminiferal calcite for many redox-sensitive transition metals, us...

The Apapa and Badagry creeks in Nigeria are a corridor of long-term anthropogenic activities, including mangrove removal, urban expansion, and industrialization. Consequently, this uncontrolled development led to the release of untreated effluents and wastes, which resulted in sediment and water quality degradation. This area has the highest degree...

Multiple assessment techniques (in situ active water samplers, Ames test, sea urchin development toxicity assay, Colitag, sediment analysis, foram community characterization) were used to assess the pollution status of Fagatele Bay, a unit of the National Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa. Pollution levels were generally low, but coastal managers...

Fiddler crabs are known as “eco-engineers” who maintain habitat health through sediment bioturbation. They regularly interact with microplastics (MPs) due to their contact with the sediment. In this study we compared MPs concentration between burrows and pellets resulting from bioturbation, and MPs bioaccumulation in the soft tissues of Minuca rapa...

We analyze potential Late Holocene metal contamination along a sediment core collected in the distal zone of Ria de Vigo (North Spain). Statistical treatment of the dataset based on a multiproxy approach enabled us to identify and disentangle factors influencing the depositional processes and the preservation of the records of this activity in the...

Fagatele Bay is an embayment within the NaƟonal Marine Sanctuary of American Samoa for which there are minimal data regarding contaminant distribuƟon in this protected area. Resource managers have significant concerns about the potenƟal inputs of contaminants from an unlined, solid waste landfill located approximately 600 m upslope from the Bay. Le...

Fiddler crabs are known as "eco-engineers" who maintain habitat health through sediment bioturbation, being able to interact with microplastics (MP) due to their daily contact with the sediment. Here, we evaluated MP contamination in mangrove substrates in Isla del Carmen, southern Gulf of Mexico, comparing MP content between burrows and pellets re...

The Apapa-Badagry Creek in southwestern Nigeria is a largely man-impact area being bordered to the north by sprawling residential estates and industries and to the south by recreational centers and villages. It also houses the Lagos Harbour and petroleum terminals. Sewage from these complexes is discharged into the creek, thus the pollutants impact...

This work documents the presence of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the sediment and in tests of Ammonia tepida, one of the most common benthic foraminifera species in coastal environments worldwide. It aims to analyze if the presence of PTEs in the carbonate test of this species is related to metals concentration in the sediment aiming its ap...

The ecological response of benthic foraminifera to bioavailable Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) was evaluated in Lagos Lagoon (Nigeria). We sampled and analyzed PTEs across Lagos Lagoon with the aim to investigate the extent of contaminated sediments, to document their distribution, and to explore the relationship between PTE concentration and th...

We gathered total organic carbon (%) and relative abundances of benthic foraminifera in intertidal areas and transitional waters from the English Channel/European Atlantic Coast (587 samples) and the Mediterranean Sea (301 samples) regions from published and unpublished datasets. This database allowed to calculate total organic carbon optimum and t...

To describe and compare the effects of historical changes on sediment quality conditions using FORAM-AMBI, Foram Stress Index and Ammonia-Elphidium Index.

In southern Puerto Rico along the coastline bordering the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, environmental encroachment has exposed mangrove forest to different sources of pollution. Potentially toxic element concentrations from the F1 Tess (exchangeable), F4 Tess (oxidizable), mangrove leaf litter (MLL), and fiddler crab whole body sof...

This work contributes to the ongoing work aiming at confirming benthic foraminifera as a biological quality element. In this study, benthic foraminifera from intertidal and transitional waters from the English Channel/ European Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean Sea were assigned to five ecological groups using the weighted-averaging optimum with...

Multiproxy approach based on textural, mineralogical, geochemical, and microfaunal analyses on a 176-cm-long core (SP8) has been applied to reconstruct the Holocene paleoenvironmental changes and disentangling natural vs. anthropogenic variability in Marambaia Cove of the Sepetiba Bay (SE Brazil). Sepetiba Bay became a lagoonal system due to the ev...

Constraining the marine chemical evolution of certain elements throughout Earth history is widely applied through various techniques. However, many micronutrients that are redox‑sensitive have been constrained for punctuated events indirectly as they are inferred from black shale enrichments. Paleoclimate studies have utilized foraminiferal element...

The primary purpose of the research is to investigate molybdenum uptake in the calcite shells of benthic foraminifera. Various elements incorporated into foraminiferal calcite have been used as paleoproxies for prior contemporaneous oceanic conditions, but few studies have examined the incorporation of molybdenum (Mo) by cultured foraminifera. The...

Coral reefs worldwide are degrading at alarming rates due to local and global stressors. There are ongoing needs for bioindicator systems that can be used to assess reef health status, the potential for recovery following destructive events such as tropical storms, and for the success of coral transplants. Benthic foraminiferal shells are ubiquitou...

Bulk concentrations of PTEs (potentially toxic elements) were assessed and compared with foraminiferal assemblages from core sediments from TL (Torrecillas Lagoon), on the north coast of Puerto Rico. Temporal distributions of mud, Fe, Al (proxy for terrigenous sedimentation), and rhenium (proxy for anoxia) reflected changes in land use within the d...

Torrecillas Lagoon, on the north coast of Puerto Rico, has experienced extensive anthropogenic influence over the past 200 years. Elevated concentrations of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in bulk sediment (Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cr, Li, V, Fe, As, Se, and Mn) have been reported in surficial sediments and have relatively uniform spatial distributions. A...

Site U1396 was piston cored as a part of Integrated Ocean Drilling Project Expedition 340 to establish a long record for Lesser Antilles volcanism. A ∼150 m sediment succession was recovered from three holes on a bathymetric high ∼33 km southwest of Montserrat. A series of shipboard and newly-generated chronostratigraphic tools (biostratigraphy, ma...

Pollution from untreated human sewage is one of several environmental concerns in the coastal waters of Belize. This study utilized distributions of fecal sterols and foraminiferal assemblages to determine if human sewage is affecting the coral reef system off the coast of Caye Caulker, Belize. A total of 125 sediment samples were collected from wh...

Following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) event in 2010 subsurface hydrocarbon intrusions (1000-1300 m) and an order of magnitude increase in flocculent hydrocarbon deposition caused increased concentrations of hydrocarbons in continental slope sediments. This study sought to characterize the variability [density, Fisher's alpha (S), equitability (E),...

This data report focuses on Holes U1394B, U1395B, and U1396C located offshore Montserrat. These holes were drilled during Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 340 and contain deposits associated with the growth and decay of the volcanic island of Montserrat. Hole U1394B dates to ~353 ka and is composed of 17 bioclastic turbidites, 24 mixed...

Recent studies hypothesize that some submarine slides fail via pressure-driven slow-slip deformation. To test this hypothesis, this study derives pore pressures in failed and adjacent unfailed deep marine sediments by integrating rock physics models, physical property measurements on recovered sediment core, and wireline logs. Two drill sites (U139...

A series of sediment cores collected from the Gulf of Mexico (2010-2014) were used to assess the spatial and temporal impacts on the benthos, quantify the recovery of benthic foraminiferal (BF) community and shell chemistry (δ13C) following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) event. A significant decline in BF density (80-93%) and diversity recognized sinc...

IODP Expedition 340 successfully drilled a series of sites offshore Montserrat, Martinique and Dominica in the Lesser Antilles from March to April 2012. These are among the few drill sites gathered around volcanic islands, and the first scientific drilling of large and likely tsunamigenic volcanic island-arc landslide deposits. These cores provide...

IODP Expedition 340 successfully drilled a series of sites offshore Montserrat, Martinique and Dominica in the Lesser Antilles from March to April 2012. These are among the few drill sites gathered around volcanic islands, and the first scientific drilling of large and likely tsunamigenic volcanic island-arc landslide deposits. These cores provide...

Marine sediments around volcanic islands contain an archive of volcaniclastic deposits, which can be used to reconstruct the volcanic history of an area. Such records hold many advantages over often incomplete terrestrial data sets. This includes the potential for precise and continuous dating of intervening sediment packages, which allow a correla...

Using temperature gradients measured in 10 holes at 6 sites, we generate the first high fidelity heat flow measurements from Integrated Ocean Drilling Program drill holes across the northern and central Lesser Antilles arc and back arc Grenada basin. The implied heat flow, after correcting for bathymetry and sedimentation effects, ranges from about...

The new antillocaprinid rudist bivalve Parasarcolites sohli sp. nov. is described from the Maastrichtian rocks of Puerto Rico (El Rayo Formation) and Jamaica (Sunderland Inlier). The species shows that all tubes, one of the diagnostic features of the genus, arise by the development of flanges on costae to roof over the intercostal space between adj...

Declining oceanic pH and carbonate-ion concentrations are well-known consequences of increased atmospheric and surface-ocean partial pressure of carbon dioxide (pCO2). The possible subject of shifts in seawater carbonate chemistry on biocalcification and survival rates of marine organisms provides questions amenable to both experimental and field s...

Torrecilla Lagoon, part of the San Juan Bay Estuary system, is a moderately-polluted estuary on the northern coast of Puerto Rico. Foraminiferal assemblages from two 30 cm cores were dominated by Ammonia spp. and Quinqueloculina rhodiensis. The latter taxon exhibits a relatively high occurrence of deformed tests (up to 18%). Analyses for potentiall...

Carrie E. Schweitzer1, Jorge Velez-Juarbe2, Michael Martinez3, Angela Collmar Hull1, 4, Rodney M. Feldmann4, and Hernan Santos2

Tables. Printout. Thesis (M.S.)--University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, 2003. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-104).