Seasonal and interannual variability of benthic foraminiferal faunas at 550m depth in the Bay of Biscay

Fontanier, Christophe; Jorissen, Frans; Chaillou, Gwénaëlle; David, Carmen; Anschutz, Pierre; Lafon, Virginie

doi:10.1016/s0967-0637(02)00167-x

Cited by 229 publications

(161 citation statements)

References 72 publications

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“…The high est foraminiferal den sity might be due to the re pro duc tion of species of rotaliids and miliolids in early au tumn, which is in di cated by the pres ence of high ju ve nile num bers. The ef fect of sea sonal ity on stand ing crop has also been re ported by other au thors; for ex am ple, the high est pop u la tion dur ing win ter was ob served by Basson and Murray (1995) and Korsun and Hald (2000), dur ing spring by Heinz and Hemleben (2003), dur ing spring and sum mer by Ellison (1984), and dur ing spring and au tumn by Fontanier et al (2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Seasonal variations, environmental parameters, and standing crop assessment of benthic foraminifera in eastern Bahrain, Arabian Gulf

Arslan

Kaminski

Tawabini

et al. 2015

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Sea sonal vari a tions, en vi ron men tal pa ram e ters and stand ing crop as sess ment of ben thic foraminifera in east ern Bah rain, Ara bian Gulf Liv ing ben thic foraminifera in a rel a tively un pol luted site off shore Bah rain in the Ara bian Gulf, were stud ied to de ter mine the sea sonal vari abil ity of their pop u la tions, as well as en vi ron men tal pa ram e ters that may af fect their dis tri bu tion. The max i mum foraminiferal den sity was ob served dur ing win ter with the as sem blages pri mar ily dom i nated by rotaliids and sec ond arily by miliolids. The high pop u la tion is at trib uted to an in creased num ber of ju ve niles. A re la tion ship be tween sed i ment grain-size and the foraminiferal den sity re veals that ju ve niles were most abun dant on coarse-grained sandy sub strate and less abundant on fine-grained sub strates. In spring, the foraminiferal den sity de creased, and the low est val ues were ob served dur ing sum mer. The pop u la tion in creased again in au tumn with high est ju ve nile/adult ra tios. More over, re sults of rel a tive abundance and spe cies con sis tency show that Am mo nia and Glabratellina are con sis tent from the shal low est to the deep est station, whereas miliolids oc curred only at deeper sta tions. The num bers of Peneroplidae and Elphidium also in creased along the depth transect. En vi ron men tal char ac ter iza tion re veals that al though the site is sub ject to eutrophication caused by nitrates and sul fates, pol lu tion caused by hy dro car bons and heavy met als is not sig nif i cant. The as sess ment of 63 heavy metals showed that none of the met als had con cen tra tions that ex ceed in ter na tion ally ac cepted norms (the de vised level of Ef fect Range -Low), but with high con cen tra tion of stron tium. The lack of a sig nif i cant en vi ron men tal ef fect of heavy met als is con firmed by the Foraminiferal Ab nor mal ity In dex of <2%. Like wise, no hy dro car bon con tam i na tion was de tected in the wa ter or sed i ment sam ples. We con clude that the site in Bah rain is not yet ad versely af fected by hu man de vel op ment, and there fore can pro vide base line in for ma tion for fu ture com par i son and as sess ment of foraminiferal as sem blages in con tam inated zones of the Ara bian Gulf.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 75%

Seasonal variations, environmental parameters, and standing crop assessment of benthic foraminifera in eastern Bahrain, Arabian Gulf

Arslan

Kaminski

Tawabini

et al. 2015

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“…However, we note that Enge et al (2011) did not record a significant response by deeper infaunal taxa to a simulated phytodetritus pulse, although this may be due to the short duration (4 days) of their experiment. It is also important to note that it has been hypothesized that deep-infaunal taxa may have a preference for degraded organic matter (Caralp, 1989;Fontanier et al, 2003), which if correct may further delay their response to influxes of labile organic matter from phytodetrital pulses. Whilst these studies are consistent with our hypothesis that infaunal taxa migrate to the sediment-seawater interface during eutrophic conditions and calcify, no studies have yet recorded when calcification occurs.…”

Section: Implications Of Sediment-seawater Interface Calcification Fomentioning

confidence: 99%

“Live” (stained) benthic foraminiferal living depths, stable isotopes, and taxonomy offshore South Georgia, Southern Ocean: implications for calcification depths

Dejardin

Kender

Allen

et al. 2018

J. Micropalaeontol.

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Abstract. It is widely held that benthic foraminifera exhibit species-specific calcification depth preferences, with their tests recording sediment pore water chemistry at that depth (i.e. stable isotope and trace metal compositions). This assumed depth-habitat-specific pore water chemistry relationship has been used to reconstruct various palaeoenvironmental parameters, such as bottom water oxygenation. However, many deepwater foraminiferal studies show wide intra-species variation in sediment living depth but relatively narrow intra-species variation in stable isotope composition. To investigate this depth-habitat-stable-isotope relationship on the shelf, we analysed depth distribution and stable isotopes of "living" (Rose Bengal stained) benthic foraminifera from two box cores collected on the South Georgia shelf (ranging from 250 to 300 m water depth). We provide a comprehensive taxonomic analysis of the benthic fauna, comprising 79 taxonomic groupings. The fauna shows close affinities with shelf assemblages from around Antarctica. We find "live" specimens of a number of calcareous species from a range of depths in the sediment column. Stable isotope ratios (δ 13 C and δ 18 O) were measured on stained specimens of three species, Astrononion echolsi, Cassidulinoides porrectus, and Buccella sp. 1, at 1 cm depth intervals within the downcore sediment sequences. In agreement with studies in deep-water settings, we find no significant intra-species variability in either δ 13 C foram or δ 18 O foram with sediment living depth on the South Georgia shelf. Our findings add to the growing evidence that infaunal benthic foraminiferal species calcify at a fixed depth. Given the wide range of depths at which we find "living", "infaunal" species, we speculate that they may actually calcify predominantly at the sediment-seawater interface, where carbonate ion concentration and organic carbon availability is at a maximum.

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“…Many species thrive below the oxic-anoxic interface (e.g. Jorissen et al 1995, Fontanier et al 2003, Koho et al 2008a, which implies that they have either a fermentative or a respiratory metabolism based on electron acceptors other than oxygen. Recently, it has been demonstrated that many benthic foraminiferal species appear to be facultative anaerobes, allowing them to use both oxygen and nitrate for respiration (Risgaard-Petersen et al 2006, Høgslund et al 2008, Piña-Ochoa et al 2010.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Survival and life strategy of the foraminiferan Globobulimina turgida through nitrate storage and denitrification

Piña-Ochoa¹,

Koho²,

Geslin³

et al. 2010

Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser.

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In a laboratory experiment, we examined the prolonged survival and behaviour of the benthic foraminiferan Globobulimina turgida under 3 simulated natural conditions: oxygenated with added nitrate, anoxic with added nitrate, and anoxic. The survival rates, adenosine triphosphate (ATP) reserve and intracellular nitrate pool of G. turgida were measured periodically under these conditions. Furthermore, to evaluate the efficiency and energy yield of the respiration system, denitrification rates of individual specimens were quantified using the acetylene inhibition and N 2 O microsensor technique at the start of the experiment. Our results demonstrate that the long-term (56 d) survival rate (64%) and ATP concentrations of G. turgida were not significantly different in oxygenated and anoxic, nitrate-containing conditions (Mann-Whitney test, p > 0.05). Thus, G. turgida can survive prolonged anoxia (3 mo) as long as nitrate is available to sustain its respiration. However, it remains unsure whether growth or reproduction can take place under anoxia. Short-term (21 to 35 d) survival rates were lower in nitrate-free, anoxic conditions (22% recovered alive compared to 62 to 82% in nitrate-oxic or nitrate-anoxic conditions), but foraminifera were observed to survive up to 56 d if respiring from their intra-cellular nitrate pool only. The foraminiferal nitrate pool appears very dynamic, as wide ranges of concentrations were measured in living specimens (0 to 463 mM ind.-1 ). We postulate that the scatter in the nitrate pool measurements highlights the ability of the foraminifera to actively collect and respire on nitrate, depending on individuals' history of exposure to oxygen and nitrate.

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Seasonal and interannual variability of benthic foraminiferal faunas at 550m depth in the Bay of Biscay

Cited by 229 publications

References 72 publications

Seasonal variations, environmental parameters, and standing crop assessment of benthic foraminifera in eastern Bahrain, Arabian Gulf

Seasonal variations, environmental parameters, and standing crop assessment of benthic foraminifera in eastern Bahrain, Arabian Gulf

“Live” (stained) benthic foraminiferal living depths, stable isotopes, and taxonomy offshore South Georgia, Southern Ocean: implications for calcification depths

Survival and life strategy of the foraminiferan Globobulimina turgida through nitrate storage and denitrification

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