Studies on benthic foraminifera were conducted in the mangrove forests of Teluk Tempoyak, Pulau Betong and Kuala Sungai Pinang, Penang Island, Peninsular Malaysia to examine species composition and distribution patterns in different intertidal zones. Twenty-eight live benthic foraminiferal species were successfully identified at the study locations, predominantly species with agglutinated tests. Assemblages in Pulau Betong and Teluk Tempoyak were dominated by similar species such as Ammonia aoteana, Elphidium hispidulum, Elphidium neosimplex and Trochammina inflata, while Kuala Sungai Pinang comprises a high number of Trochammina inflata and Arenoparrella mexicana. Three species, Aubignyna perlucida, Elphidium neosimplex and Elphidium sandiegoense, were recorded for the first time in Malaysian mangrove forests. Principal component analysis showed that sediment type and organic matter content were the dominant parameters that explained the variation of environmental gradient. Canonical correspondence analysis of these parameters with benthic foraminiferal species indicated that sand particles influenced distribution of the hyaline tests. Species with agglutinated tests were abundant in sediment with rich organic matter in combination with high silt and clay content. Species with hyaline tests dominated lower intertidal zones, while those with agglutinated tests inhabited the area from the middle to upper intertidal zones. This distribution pattern of benthic foraminiferal species mirrored patterns found at other local and global mangrove locations.

The mid-Maastrichtian carbon isotope event (MME), dated at ∼69 Ma, reflects a perturbation of the global carbon cycle that, in part, correlates with the enigmatic global extinction of ‘true’ (i.e., non-tegulated) inoceramid bivalves. The mechanisms of this extinction event are still debated.

While both the inoceramid extirpation and MME have been recorded in a variety of deep-sea sites, little is known about their expression in epicontinental chalk seas. In order to study the shallow-marine signature of the MME in this epicontinental shelf sea, we have generated quantitative foraminiferal assemblage data for two quarries (Hallembaye, NE Belgium; ENCI, SE Netherlands) in the Maastrichtian type area, complemented by a species-specific benthic δ13C record. In contrast to deep-sea records, no significant changes in benthic foraminiferal assemblages and benthic foraminiferal accumulation rates are observed across the MME in the type-Maastrichtian area. At the Hallembaye quarry, the otherwise rare endobenthic species Cuneus trigona reaches a transient peak abundance of 33.3% at the onset of the MME, likely caused by a local transient change in organic matter flux to the seafloor. Nevertheless, high and near-constant species evenness shows that neither oxygen nor organic matter flux was limited across the extinction level or during the MME. Benthic foraminiferal data from the uppermost part of the studied section, above the MME, indicate a significant increase in food supply to the seafloor. Decreased amounts of terrigenous elements across this interval document a lesser riverine or aeolian influx, which means that the increased benthic productivity is linked to a different origin. Potentially, the continuous precipitation of chalk under nutrient-poor conditions in the Late Cretaceous chalk sea was enabled by efficient nutrient recycling in the water column. In shallower depositional settings, nutrient recycling took place closer to the seafloor, which allowed more organic matter to reach the bottom. These results provide insights in the importance of nutrient cycling for biological productivity in the NW-European chalk sea.

We have analysed a 6100-year record of benthic and planktonic foraminifera from inner neritic sediments from Core SK291/GC13, off the Goa coast, eastern Arabian Sea, to understand the response of benthic foraminifera to shallow-marine processes. The benthic foraminiferal assemblage is dominated by Nonion cf. asterizans, Ammonia beccarii, A. gaimardii and Virgulinella fragilis, which have been selected on the basis of a population of 10% or more in any three samples analysed. The planktonic foraminiferal population is sporadic and rare, with Globigerinoides ruber as the predominant species showing a variable trend. The foraminiferal proxies combined with total organic carbon (wt%) and δ13C and δ18O values of Ammonia gaimardii suggest distinct variations, indicating changes in productivity and salinity in the shallow eastern Arabian Sea. The coastal waters off Goa were relatively warmer and less saline between 6100 and 4600, or perhaps to 4200, calibrated years before the present (cal yr BP), corresponding to a stronger monsoon in South and East Asia. The shallow sea was cooler from ~4200 to 2600 cal yr BP in the study area, coinciding with a lower sea surface temperature in the northeastern Arabian Sea and an arid phase in the Indian subcontinent. From 2900 to 2600 cal yr BP the study core exhibits the impacts of short-term cold events, which have earlier been observed in the northeastern Arabian Sea, off Pakistan. During the Little Ice Age, the shallow sea off Goa was less productive.

Laguna de la Leche, north coastal Cuba, is a shallow (≤ 3 m), oligohaline (∼ 2.0–4.5‰) coastal lake surrounded by mangroves and cattail stands. A 227-cm core was studied using loss-on-ignition, pollen, calcareous microfossils, and plant macrofossils. From ∼6200 to ∼ 4800 cal yr BP, the area was an oligohaline lake. The period from ∼ 4800 to ∼ 4200 cal yr BP saw higher water levels and a freshened system; these changes are indicated by an increase in the regional pollen rain, as well as by the presence of charophyte oogonia and an increase in freshwater gastropods (Hydrobiidae). By ∼ 4000 cal yr BP, an open mesohaline lagoon had formed; an increase in salt-tolerant foraminifers suggests that water level increase was driven by relative sea level rise. The initiation of Laguna de la Leche correlates with a shift to wetter conditions as indicated in pollen records from the southeastern United States (e.g., Lake Tulane). This synchronicity suggests that sea level rise caused middle Holocene environmental change region-wide. Two other cores sampled from mangrove swamps in the vicinity of Laguna de la Leche indicate that a major expansion of mangroves was underway by ∼ 1700 cal yr BP.

Integrated sedimentological and micropaleontological (foraminifera, ostracods, pollens) investigations of a 173-m-long continuous core in the subsurface of the SE Po Plain reveal a cyclic facies distribution of continental to shallow-marine deposits. Radiometric and pollen data enable an age attribution of the study units to the late Middle Pleistocene–Holocene. Glacioeustasy appears to have exerted a major control on facies development, as documented by the close relationships between cyclic lithofacies patterns and the curves of eustatic fluctuation. Particularly, relative sea-level falls and lowstand phases were characterized by the development of alluvial sedimentation, whereas major transgressive pulses and subsequent highstands are reflected by abrupt shifts to paralic and shallow-marine deposits. This facies architecture is paralleled by a distinctive pollen distribution, reflecting the alternation of a glacial type of vegetation, dominated by Pinus and nonarboreal pollen types, with interglacial mixed deciduous broad-leaved forests.

The investigation of foraminiferal assemblages from a series of Oligocene borehole sections allowed paleoenvironment and paleoclimate reconstructions for the Rupelian and Chattian (Lower and Upper Oligocene) Stages in their type region, the southern North Sea Basin. A striking feature coinciding with the Rupelian-Chattian (R-C) unconformity is the major change in paleotemperature and paleobathymetry. The shallow marine to restricted marine subtropical fauna at the base of the Chattian is in strong contrast with the deeper marine and cooler upper Rupelian assemblages. This study suggests that the early Chattian transgression is genetically related to a widespread major warming pulse, known as the Late Oligocene Warming Event.

The foraminiferal test is one of the principal sources of CaCO3 in oceans. The principal habitats of Amphistegina include the Indo-Pacific islands and the Caribbean Sea. Although quite rare in the Aegean Sea Amphistegina lobifera is typical of various regions throughout the eastern Mediterranean and has also been reported from the middle and north Aegean Sea. But, on the south-western coast of Turkey it is found in extensive amounts, to such an extent that, it forms a 50 cm thick layer of sand and changes the benthic structure, as well as the ecology. Our results are based upon 12 samples from Üç Adalar (Antalya), and 13 samples from Beş Adalar (Antalya) collected from 4–30 m of depth. Each sample contains a high proportion of A. lobifera within the sediment. The exaggerated proportion of the A. lobifera test on the benthos points to certain conditions. Other benthic foraminiferans are not only scarce in genus and species number, but they are also found in very small populations. Even though there is no evidence of volcanic activity from west of the Gulf of Antalya, tectonic activity is present, resulting in formation of submarine springs which are located on the active faults. The presence of limestones with karstic characteristics in the Taurus Mountains combined with submarine springs cause salinity and temperature variations, as well as an increase in CaCO3 in the seawater. So alterations in the chemical and physical conditions of seawater may be responsible for this enormous expansion of the A. lobifera population.

Near-shore recent benthic foraminifera from three ecologically important (Olive Ridley turtle congregation sites) but vulnerable sites encompassing 23 sampling stations (12 in Rushikulya, 5 in Devi and 6 in Gahirmatha) along coastal Orissa, north-west Bay of Bengal (BoB) in India were studied for the first time for their composition, distribution and assemblage patterns. Thirty-nine species of benthic foraminifers (from 6 orders and 23 families) were identified of which all 39 were present in Rushikulya, 22 in Devi and 12 in Gahirmatha with abundance ranging from 35–2620 individuals/10 cm3 in the sediments. The communities across the sites were dominated by eurytopic rotalids followed by miliolids and textularids. Benthic foraminifer assemblages were found to be dominated by Ammonia species complex (up to 38% in Rushikulya, 64% in Devi and 22% in Gahirmatha). Agglutinated foraminifers were infrequent in the sediments (7 species in Rushikulya, 4 species in Devi and 3 in Gahirmatha) on the other hand, being dominated by Quinqueloculina agglutinans in Rushikulya and Trochammina macrescens and Ammobaculites agglutinans in Devi and Gahirmatha. The substrates along the study sites were found mostly to be sand dominated and in some of the stations sediment composition influenced the foraminifer distribution pattern. The present findings on the assemblage patterns of benthic foraminifers from three coastal settings in Orissa along the BoB are comparable with previous reports from other sandy coastal ecosystems in the world. Overall these data provide valuable insights into the distribution and assemblage patterns of benthic foraminifers from the BoB coastal regions.

Benthic foraminiferal assemblages are described for the first time from the early Eocene of West Antarctica. They come from the lower member (Telm1) of the La Meseta Formation of Isla Marambio (Seymour Island). Two distinctive assemblages, dominated by Nonionellina, Nonionella, Globocassidulina, and Eilohedra, as well as by Globocassidulina, Cribroelphidium, Guttulina, and Lobatula, indicate restricted, shallow marine, nearshore conditions. Their most characteristic species show distinct affinities with Eocene faunas of New Zealand and Patagonia, as well as with stratigraphically younger Antarctic foraminiferal communities.

Four distinctive morphological types can be found among living Globocassidulina in surface sediments of Admiralty Bay (King George Island, South Shetland Islands). The molecular analysis of the SSU and ITS rDNA indicates that they are monospecific and belong to Globocassidulina biora, except for minute forms from deeper than 200 m water depth which probably represent G. subglobosa. The morphological types of G. biora that show doubled or branched apertures, varied test size and shape as well as colour of cytoplasm, represent populations at different stages of ontogenetic development. However, the variability among large G. biora from the same locations is difficult to comprehend. It seems probable that G. biora is the only recent, large, shallow water Globocassidulina represented throughout the Antarctica, while G. crassa is typical for the Magellan region.

Cribroelphidium webbi sp. nov. is the only adequately described sub-Recent elphidiid foraminifer from Antarctica. In Admiralty Bay (King George Island, South Shetland Islands), it is found at several locations within inner fiord setting at water depths between 33 and 165 m, but most commonly shallower than 100 m. In outer basins this foraminifer is absent. In the cores analysed, C. webbi sp. nov. is present in well-constrained sub-Recent horizons that are clearly related to climate warming and deglaciation. These horizons represent a diachronous facies marker rather than a single stratigraphic layer. Cribroelphidium webbi sp. nov. shows clear association with retreating tidewater glaciers, therefore it is an important sensitive glacier-proximal indicator. It appears that it shares similar ecologic affinities with Cribroelphidium excavatum clavatum, which is widely distributed throughout the Arctic.

Live specimens of benthic foraminiferal species Rosalina leei were subjected to a combination of temperature (25°C, 30°C and 35°C) and salinity (25‰, 30‰ and 35‰) to assess its differential response to the annual range of seawater temperature and salinity reported at the sampling site. A total of 216 specimens were used for the experiment. Within the range of temperature and salinity, to which R. leei specimens were subjected as part of the present experiment, growth increased with increasing salinity, whereas increase in seawater temperature resulted in retarded growth. Maximum growth was reported in the specimens kept at 25°C temperature and 35‰ salinity while the rest of the specimens maintained in 30‰ and 25‰ saline water, showed comparatively less growth. The specimens kept at 30°C and 35°C temperature and different salinities showed much less growth as compared to the specimens maintained at 25°C temperature. However, none of the R. leei specimens subjected to the present experiment reproduced during the course of the experiment. The absence of reproduction under the present set of temperature and salinity conditions, probably indicates that R. leei reproduces at a very narrow range of temperature and salinity which is different from the temperature and salinity conditions in the present experiment. It is further inferred that under the present set of temperature–salinity conditions, 25°C temperature and 35‰ saline water is most suitable for the growth of R. leei. Results are significant as the responses of benthic foraminifera to different temperatures and salinity are being used for palaeoclimatic reconstruction.