Distribution of Benthic Foraminifera in Littoral Zone of Besant Nagar, Chennai

Foraminifera species found in ocean waters play an important role as pollution indicators as well as ecologically important roles in the carbon cycle in sediment waters. The objective of this study was to explore different species of Foraminifera distributed along the littoral zone of ocean waters of Besant Nagar beach of Chennai. The presence of 20 benthic foraminiferal species belonging to 14 genera, 10 families, 7 super families, and 3 suborders was discovered in beach sediments taken from Besant Nagar waters. Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the identified species were collected, and the hypotypes were numbered, labelled, and stored in the Department of Applied Geology's repository in Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600025. pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), biological oxygen demand (BOD), and salinity were also investigated as ecological factors. Elphidium crispum, Quinqueloculina seminulum, Operculina (Assilina), Assilina ammonoides, and other important foraminiferal species were discovered. This research is unique in that it focuses on foraminifera, which are exceptionally different protozoan populations that exist in the space between past and current 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.