Benthic Foraminiferal Response to Major Paleoceanographic Changes

Abstract

Relative and absolute abundances of fossil benthic foraminifera are widely used in attempts to understand the deep-sea environment and its variability in space and time. Recent studies in the present-day ocean have demonstrated that a strong bentho-pelagic coupling exists even in deep water because the fluxes of organic matter from primary producers in the photic zone are the main supply of food (energy) to benthic communities in the severely food-limited deep sea.