Distribution, Diversity and Abundance of Benthic Foraminifera of the Northwstern Persian Gulf

During ROPME Winter Cruise 2006, twenty six surface sediment samples taken from the Northwestern part of the Persian Gulf at depths of 13-77m were analyzed for their foraminifera content. A total of 93 species of benthic foraminifera were found in the study area. The foraminifera assemblages were dominated by Ammonia beccarii, Spiroloculina excavata, S. depressa, Quinqueloculina dimidiata, Q. seminula, Q. costata, Triloculina sp. and Bolivina spp. The dominant species constituted from 52 to 88%, sub- dominant species from 4 to 34% and rare species from 0.27 to 1.37%. Compound diversity (H) was uniformly low at all stations ranging from 0.90 to 1.66 at stations 8 and 7, respectively. Low species diversity values indicated stress conditions in the study area according to Welch model. There was no correlation (p≤0.05) between total foraminifera assemblages and environmental parameters.