ISOLATION, IDENTIFICATION AND ECOLOGY OF RECENT BENTHIC FORAMINIFERA FROM THE LITTORAL ZONE, OF BESANT NAGAR, CHENNAI

Foraminifera species present in the ocean waters, play an important role as indicators of pollution and also ecologically important in carbon cycle in the sediment waters. In the present study, littoral zone of ocean waters of Besant nagar, beach of Chennai, was explored for different species of Foraminifera. The beach sediments, collected from Besant nagar, waters, showed the presence of 20 benthic foraminiferal species belonging to 14genera, 10 families, 7 super families, and 3 suborders were identified. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the identified species, were taken and the hypotypes were duly indexed with numbers, labeled, and placed in the repository of the Department of Applied Geology, University of Madras, Chennai 600025. Ecological parameters such as pH, Dissolved oxygen (DO), Biological oxygen demand (BOD), and salinity were tested, as a part of the study. Our observations, revealed the presence of important foraminiferal species, such as Elphidium crispum, Quinqueloculina seminulum, Operculina (Assilina), Assilinaammonoides etc..This study is unique in its own way, as it focuses upon the extraordinarily distinct protozoan populations, foraminifera, which stand in between the past and present ecological characteristics of sediment waters. In future, deeper waters of these ocean may be further explored to unravel many more species of these uncommon protozoans.