Distribution of Benthic Foraminifera with Reference to Sediment Characters from off the Coast of Manapad, South East Coast of India

V. Kumar¹ and Twinkle Jacob^2,

¹Department of Geology, National College (Autonomous), Tiruchirapalli, Tamilnadu, India – 620 001

²Department of Geology, Kristu Jyoti College, Changanacherry, Kerala, India-686104

Cite this paper:
V. Kumar and Twinkle Jacob. Distribution of Benthic Foraminifera with Reference to Sediment Characters from off the Coast of Manapad, South East Coast of India. Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences. 2019; 7(3):110-116. doi: 10.12691/aees-7-3-5

Abstract

In order to assess the distribution of foraminifera with reference to sediment characters from the inner shelf sediments of Gulf of Mannar, off Manapad to Tiruchendur, the following objectives were taken up i. to inventory the foraminifera fauna and to observe their quantitative composition ii. to ascertain the distribution of living and total (living + dead) population of the fauna and iii. to correlate the temporal and spatial distribution of the fauna with observed substrate characteristics. For the study, 54 sediment samples were collected once in four months for a year, representing summer, pre-monsoon and winter/post monsoon, from the study area. A total of 99 species were identified, belonging to the suborders Textulariina, Miliolina, Lagenina and Rotaliina. The following six species were found to be abundant viz. Ammonia beccarii, Ammonia tepida, Asterorotalia inflata, Noninoides boueanum, Quinqueloculina seminulum and Spiroloculina communis. Spatially, the population, in general, increased with the depth and was found to be higher along the deeper part of the collection (stations 8, 9 and 10) and minimum population was found to occur in near shore stations (stations 1 and 18). The living population was found to be maximum during summer (May) and minimum during pre-monsoonal period (September). The species distribution revealed that the foraminiferal population has a positive correlation with depth, calcium carbonate and organic matter content of the substrate. In general, the higher values of CaCO₃ found in stations 7 to 13, support higher foraminiferal population in the area. The population was also found to be maximum when the organic matter percentage was between 1.90 and 2.00 % along with other amiable environmental parameters. The congenial substrate for the population abundance was siltysand.

Keywords:
benthic foraminifera spatial temporal distribution sediment characters Manapad Tiruchendur Gulf of Mannar

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