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Relationship between abundance and morphology of benthic foraminifera Epistominella exigua: Palaeoclimatic implications

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Relationship between abundance and morphology of benthic foraminifera Epistominella exigua: Palaeoclimatic implications
 
Creator Saraswat, R.
Deopujari, A.
Nigam, R.
Henriques, P.J.
 
Subject Benthic foraminifera
Epistominella exigua
Bay of Bengal
Paleoclimatic
 
Description The relationship between abundance (relative as well as absolute abundance) and morphology (size of the shell, numbers and proloculus size) of benthic foraminifera Epistominella exigua has been studied in a core to understand the influence of changing environmental conditions on its morphology and distribution. A total of 50 samples from the top 100 cm section of a gravity core collected from the southern Bay of Bengal Fan were used. The changes in abundance of E. exigua match well with variation in average proloculus size of E. exigua. An opposite relationship however, is observed between the abundance and size of E. exigua shells. The higher abundance corresponds with smaller E. exigua shells. Similarly, the increased E. exigua abundance matches with a decrease in the number of chambers. The increased abundance of E. exigua shows favourable conditions for its growth and survival. Thus the study indicates that during favourable conditions, while the number of chambers in the shells and the size of the shells of E. exigua decreases, more number of specimens have a larger proloculus. Since asexual reproduction results in the megalospheric specimens with larger proloculus, smaller size and less number of chambers, it is inferred that E. exigua prefers an asexual mode of reproduction during favourable conditions. The findings can be used to apply morphological characteristics of E. exigua as a proxy to infer past climatic conditions
 
Date 2011-02-03T08:41:17Z
2011-02-03T08:41:17Z
2011
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Journal Geological Society of India, vol.77(2); 2011; 190-196
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/3786
 
Language en
 
Rights © GEOL. SOC. INDIA. All efforts have been made to respect the copyright to the best of our knowledge. Inadvertent omissions, if brought to our notice, stand for correction and withdrawal of document from this repository.
 
Publisher Geological Society of India