The significance of ecostratigraphy and need for biostratigraphic hierarchy in stratigraphic nomenclature

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Abstract
It is proposed that the lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic and chronostratigraphic categories currently recognized in the International Stratigraphic Guide should be expanded by an additional category, provisionally termed ecostratigraphy. This category would incorporate fossil subcommunities, communities, faunal and floral provinces, and biomes, to provide an ecologic counterpart to lithostratigraphy, and would help bridge the categories of lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy. It is suggested that a hierarchy of terms in biostratigraphy would be useful, with formal recognition of subzones and superzones. Subzones may be defined as zones within zones, or short-lived biologic events in which 1 or a few species dominated communities, without permanently changing the benthos in the marine world. They are equivalent in rank to fossil communities. Superzones are defined as correlative zones. If superzones were to be matched with substages (in biologic but not lithologic content), we would have a natural link between biostratigraphy and chronostratigraphy.