Morphological variations of benthic foraminiferal tests in response to changes in ecological parameters: a review

Abstract

Some of the relatively recent literature correlating morphological variation in benthic foraminifera with environmental parameters such as temperature, salinity, carbonate solubility, depth, nutrition, substrate, dissolved oxygen, illumination, pollution, water motion, trace elements, and rapid environmental fluctuation is reviewed. It appears some variables (most notably depth) are recorded more frequently, which may affect some conclusions. Although each variable is treated separately, it appears that almost no variables act independently on test morphologies. In reviewing the literature, it becomes clear that there are many individual trends, especially with shell ornamentation, but few broad ones, and that it is almost impossible, with exception of some of the larger reef-dwelling, symbiont-bearing foraminifera, to predict how any species will react to various parameters. The broad trends concern thinning or thickening of carbonate tests with changing carbonate availability, temperature, and salinity. It appears that many observations of morphological changes within species may not be recorded in the literature, perhaps because authors did not recognize the importance of small details that would be of importance at a later time.