Environmental Variation and Foraminiferal Test Abnormalities

Abstract

Foraminifers are increasingly used as bioindicators of environments. Their community structure provides information on the general characteristics of the environment, especially in highly changing paralic environments (e.g., Hayward and Hollis, 1994), and some species are sensitive to specific environmental parameters. Test morphology may also be related to environmental characteristics and is sometimes used as a bioindicator. The size and the density of pores, e.g., have been considered as indicators of dissolved oxygen concentration (Sen Gupta and Machain-Castillo, 1993).