GCK SCIENCE LETTERS

Vol. 1 (1), January 2012, pp. 22-30

Planktic foraminifera: A potential proxy for paleoclimatic /

paleoceanographic studies

A.V. Sijinkumar1,*, B. Nagender Nath2

1
Department of Post Graduate Studies & Research in Geology, Govt. College Kasaragod,
Kerala, 671123, India
2
National Institute of Oceanography (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research), Dona
Paula, Goa, 403004, India

Abstract

Among the microfossils, planktic foraminifera are the one of the best and widely
studied group. They are very sensitive to environmental variations and their distribution
through passive transport, as well as their high relative abundances and good preservation
potential make them ideal proxies to interpret marine sediments and oceanic conditions.
Planktic foraminifera are widely used for the paleoclimatic studies includes reconstruction of
past monsoon and productivity variations as well as for past Sea Surface Temperature (SST)
estimation by transfer function, oxygen isotope and Mg/Ca studies of their shells. This report
has made an attempt to discuss various applications of planktic foraminifera in Quaternary
research and also documented the diversity record of planktic foraminifera in the sediments
of the Andaman Sea. The present study has yielded a total of 34 species which is one of the
highest diversity seen in the tropical Indian Ocean. The five most abundant species are G.
ruber, G. glutinata, N. dutertrei, G. bulloides and P. Obliquiloculata comprising nearly 70%
of the total foraminiferal assemblage.

Keywords: Planktic foraminifera; Paleoclimate; Paleoceanography; Andaman Sea

_______________________________________________________________________

* Corresponding author. Address: Assistant Professor, Department of Post Graduate Studies

& Research in Geology, Govt. College Kasaragod, Kerala, 671123, India.
Tel. +91 9020495237; E-mail address: sijingeo@gmail.com
23 | A.V. Sijinkumar, B. Nagender Nath /GCK Science Letters 1-1 (2012) 22-30

1.0 Introduction

Useful information for reconstructing ocean history is preserved in the marine

sediments in the form of microfossils, isotopic composition of shells and other sediment
components. Assessing paleoclimate variability using the geological record necessarily
depends on the development and reliability of climate proxies (Wefer et al., 1999). Marine
sediments are composed of both biogenic and terrigenous materials. Paleoceanographers
widely use both the type of sediments. The biogenic component includes the remains of
surface dwelling planktic and bottom dwelling benthic organisms, which provide a record of
past climate and oceanic circulation in terms of surface water temperature and salinity,
dissolved oxygen in deep water, nutrient or trace element concentrations etc. Terrigenous
deposits are detrital material derived from the erosion of the land masses surrounding the
ocean basins and their mineral composition in sediments varies and reflects the provenance
and weathering process (Bradley, 1999).

Foraminifera (in short forams) are a unicellular micro organism of marine

environment capable of preserving the records of climate change and widely distributed all
over the oceans. There are 40 species of living planktic foraminifera and more than thousands
of benthic species. The size of the foraminiferal test typically ranges from 0.05 mm to 0.5
mm although some forams may be large as several centimetres with a recorded maximum of
18 cm in diameter. Planktic foraminifers are a major marine calcareous microfossil group.
Their shells are abundant in most oceanic sediments. Planktic foraminifera are very sensitive
to environmental variations and their distribution through passive transport, as well as their
high relative abundances and good preservation potential make them ideal proxies to interpret
marine sediments and oceanic conditions. The present day variability of the microfossils,
their habitat can be studied by plankton tows and sediment trap experiments (Honjo et al.,
1999) and culturing experiments in laboratories which has led to a better understanding of the
fluxes of modern planktic foraminifera, revealing that they have large seasonal variations in
abundance tied closely to surface water hydrography.

The Quaternary was a period of major climatic changes and has been the most
eventful among all other geologic periods. The Late Quaternary period has witnessed large
changes in global climate. Thus understanding the climatic variation and oceanographic
changes during the Quaternary period assumes importance, in order to fully comprehend our
present day climate. Paleoclimatology is the science of understanding the climate of
24 | A.V. Sijinkumar, B. Nagender Nath /GCK Science Letters 1-1 (2012) 22-30

geological past i.e. paleoclimate. It deals with the changes in past climatic condition. There
are various ways by which we can interpret the paleoclimate because the climatic changes
and resulting conditions affect almost all the natural phenomena (Bradley, 1999). Recent
decades have witnessed the rapid development of a new discipline in the earth sciences which
deal with the history of the oceans, evolution of shallow and deep sea circulation patterns,
water masses and changes in biological productivity responding to the changes in climate and
this new discipline is named Paleoceanography. Planktic foraminifera provide a potential
candidate for Quaternary climatic and oceanographic studies.

1.1 Characteristics of planktic foraminifera

Being protists, planktic foraminifera are very sensitive to the ambient changes in the
environment. Their preservation potential is high and their test is made up of calcium
carbonate. The environmental changes in surroundings get recorded in the calcareous tests of
the foraminifera. As the soft part get disintegrated after death, the hard part remains intact as
fossil in sediments. Foraminifers are microscopic in size and abundant in almost all marine
environments. Considering its size, abundance and diversity, it is very much feasible to use
foraminifera as a proxy; small amount of sample contains hundreds and thousands of
foraminifera while their ability of adaptation to environment lead the diversity of
foraminifera. They are omnipresent thus can be recovered from every marine environment
from lowest to the high latitude. Their diversity is a function of changing environment thus
different environments are characterized by different and typical assemblages. Their test is
capable for being preserved and mainly used as a basis for the classification. Any change in
the environment is visible in the form of a morphological manifestation such as changes in
size, coiling direction and deformation of the test.

1.2 Applications of planktic foraminifera

Planktic foraminifera are widely used in Paleoclimatic / paleoceanographic studies
because of its very sensitive to the climatic changes. Following are the some of the important
applications of planktic foraminifera in Quaternary geological studies.

1.2.1 Past Monsoon Variations

Among the micropaleontological proxies, planktic foraminifera are widely used as
sensitive monsoon indicators because they respond directly to oceanographic conditions
(Prell and Curry 1981). Among the planktic foraminifera, G. bulloides is widely used as an
upwelling/monsoon proxy (Prell and Curry 1981, Sijinkumar et al., 2010). Ishikawa and Oda
25 | A.V. Sijinkumar, B. Nagender Nath /GCK Science Letters 1-1 (2012) 22-30

Figure 1. Important Planktic foraminiferal species of the late Quaternary sediments of the
Andaman Sea. Detailed description of the figure is given below.

(2007) have reconstructed Indian monsoon variability over 230 ka BP using summer
(Globigerina bulloides, Globigerinita glutinata, Globigerina falconensis, Globorotalia
menardii) and winter monsoon proxies (Globigerinoides ruber, Neogloboquadrina dutertrei,
Neogloboquadrina compacta and Globigerinoides sacculifer) from the NW Arabian Sea.
Sijinkumar et al., (2011) was shown that the potential of using planktic foraminifera
Pulleniatina obliquiloculata as a proxy for winter monsoon changes in the Andaman Sea.
1.2.2 Past Productivity Reconstruction
Planktic foraminiferal assemblages and their isotopic composition are frequently
studied for reconstructing paleoceanography and paleoproductivity (e.g. Niebler et al., 1999;
Lea et al., 2000; Meggers et al., 2002). Microfossil abundance is also directly related to
productivity. Planktic foraminiferal abundances are widely used as a proxy for upwelling
related productivity changes. Within each group of planktic shelled organisms, some species
26 | A.V. Sijinkumar, B. Nagender Nath /GCK Science Letters 1-1 (2012) 22-30

occur preferentially in high productivity regions while others avoid these. Thus relative
abundances of certain species have been identified as indicators of high productivity (Prell
and Curry, 1981). Singh et al. (2011) used planktic foraminiferal assemblage known as fertile
species (G. bulloides, G. falconensis and G. glutinata) for reconstructing paleoproductivity.
1.2.4 Past Seawater Temperature Reconstruction.
Planktic foraminifera are widely used for past SST estimation by transfer function
and also for oxygen isotope studies of shells of Planktic foraminifera. Planktic foraminifera
provide important clues on estimating the SST, the difference in species composition contain
clues to the temperature of the waters in which they lived (Broecker, 1986). The CLIMAP
group (1976, 1981) provided the first large scale maps for surface temperatures in the glacial
ocean mainly based on the fossil assemblages of planktic foraminifera. In the Andaman Sea,
Rashid et al. (2007) was used Mg/Ca ratio of surface dwelling planktic foraminifera G. ruber
for reconstructing past SST.
1.2.5 Past Salinity Reconstruction
Salinity is the second variable with temperature that controls seawater density and
deep ocean circulation (Henderson, 2002). The reconstruction of paleosalinity is of difficult
task, mainly because no independent geochemical proxy for salinity has been yet found. Only
two approaches allow assessment of paleosalinity. Rostek et al. (1993) calculated
temperatures for the Indian Ocean using alkenones and then used the 18O values of G. ruber
(white) for determining the salinities. Planktic foraminiferal assemblages (Cullen, 1980) and
oxygen isotope records (Kudras et al., 2001) of Bay of Bengal was used for reconstructing
paleo-salinity for the late Quaternary.
1.2.6 In determining chemistry of ocean waters:
The chemistry of the shell is useful because it reflects the chemistry of the water in
which it grew. For example, the ratio of stable oxygen isotopes depends on the water
temperature, because warmer water tends to evaporate off more of the lighter isotopes.
Measurement of stable oxygen isotopes in planktic and benthic foraminiferal shells from
hundreds of deep-sea cores worldwide have been used to document past surface and bottom
water temperatures. This data was used for understanding how climate and ocean currents
have changed in the past and may change in the future.
1.2.7 Sea level changes
Eustatic sea level fluctuated significantly in accordance with the waxing and waning
of continental ice sheets (Chappell and Shackleton, 1986). Foraminifera are widely used for
27 | A.V. Sijinkumar, B. Nagender Nath /GCK Science Letters 1-1 (2012) 22-30

reconstructing sea level changes mainly understanding the bathymetry of the different
species. By using the presence of barnacle fouling which are of typical intertidal sessile
crustaceans, paleo-depth models may be developed, and by changes of depth, the changes in
the sea-level may be inferred (Nigam, 1996).

1.2.8 Biostratigraphy
Biostartigraphy is mainly based on index fossils, first and last appearance datum and
acme zone of a species in a sedimentary formation. Foraminifera provide evidence of the
relative ages of marine rocks. There are several reasons that fossil foraminifera are especially
valuable for determining the relative ages of marine rock layers. They have been around since
the Cambrian, over 500 million years ago. They show fairly continuous evolutionary
development; so different species are found at different times. Forams are abundant and
widespread, being found in all marine environments, very small and easy to collect, even
from deep oil wells hence widely applied in biostratigraphy.

1.2.9 For Petroleum exploration:

Planktic foraminifera are good index fossil for oil and natural gas exploration. It is
often used in determining the particular geological period, when the decay of organic matters
occurred under anaerobic conditions in marine rock. Usually formation of petroleum occurs
in typical environment especially marine and their assemblages are good indicator of
particular environment condition and helpful in determine the oil-bearing horizon. Because of
this oil industry has been an important employer of paleontologists who specialize in these
microscopic fossils. Stratigraphic control using foraminifera is so precise that these fossils are
even used to direct sideways drilling within an oil-bearing horizon to increase well
productivity.

2.0 Planktic foraminifera of the Andaman Sea

In order to understand the diversity of planktic foraminifera in the late Quaternary
sediments of the Andaman Sea, the surface sediments were studied which have yielded 34
species. The five most abundant species of the late Quaternary sediments of the Andaman
Sea are G. ruber, G. glutinata, N. dutertrei, G. bulloides and P. Obliquiloculata comprising
nearly 70% of the total foraminiferal assemblage. Microscopic photograph were taken for the
important planktic foraminifera species which is shown in figure 1.
28 | A.V. Sijinkumar, B. Nagender Nath /GCK Science Letters 1-1 (2012) 22-30

Figure 1 detailed description

Plate 1:
1. Globigerina bulloides (dOrbigny 1826)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
2. Globigerina falconensis (Blow 1959)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
Plate 2
1. Globigerinoides sacculifer (Brady 1877)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
2. Globigerinoides conglobatus (Brady 1879)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
Plate 3
1. Globigerinoides ruber (dOrbigny 1839)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
2. Globigerinita glutinata (Egger 1893)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
Plate 4
1. Globoturborotalita rubescens (Hofker 1956)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
2. Globigerinoides tenellus (Parker 1958)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
Plate 5
1. Globoratalia menardii ( Parker, Jones and Brady 1865)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
2. Globigerinella aequilateralis (Brady 1879)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
Plate 6
1. Neogloboquadrina deutertrei (dOrbigny 1839)
a. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view
2. Pulleniatina obliquiloculata (Parker and Jones 1865)
b. Apertural view; b. Dorsal view

Conclusions
The importance and applications of planktic foraminifera in general were discussed
detail and the diversity of planktic foraminifera in the sediments of the Andaman Sea is
reported here. In the Andaman Sea, a total of 34 species were identified which is one of the
highest diversity seen in the tropical Indian Ocean. The five most abundant species are G.
ruber, G. glutinata, N. dutertrei, G. bulloides and P. Obliquiloculata comprising nearly 70%
of the total foraminiferal assemblage.

Acknowledgements
We thank the Principal, Government College Kasaragod and Director, National
Institute of Oceanography, Goa, for the permission to publish this paper.
29 | A.V. Sijinkumar, B. Nagender Nath /GCK Science Letters 1-1 (2012) 22-30

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