Depth related adaptations in symbiont bearing benthic foraminifera: New insights from a field experiment on Operculina ammonoides.

ABSTRACT: Large benthic foraminifera (LBF) are marine calcifying protists that commonly harbor algae as symbionts. These organisms are major calcium carbonate producers and important contributors to primary production in the photic zones. Light is one of the main known factors limiting their distribution, and species of this group developed specific mechanisms that allow them to occupy different habitats across the light gradient. Operculina ammonoides (Gronovius, 1781) is a planispiral LBF that has two main shell morphotypes, thick involute and flat evolute. Earlier studies suggested morphologic changes with variation in water depth and presumably light. In this study, specimens of the two morphotypes were placed in the laboratory under artificial low light and near the sea floor at depths of 15 m,

SUBMITTER: Oron S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6015019 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature