FORAMINIFERA AS ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS OF POLLUTED ENVIRONMENTS

Benthic foraminifera are sensitive to environmental pollution and have been used as environmental bio-indicators,especially in a polluted environment.In the past decades,the studies of environmental changes and their effects on benthic foraminifera have been undertaken in some areas polluted by industrious,agricultural,and various chemical pollutants as well as domestic sewages.Data suggest that the pollution of environments may cause strong responses from benthic foraminifera,such as decreasing in community structure and numbers,morphological deformities,and even extinction of some sensitive species.Although foraminifera may,to some extent,adapt to the polluted environment,but this adaptation is at the cost of genetic variability.Environmental pollution will effect foraminifera in many aspects,such as the Foraminiferal Abnormality Index (FAI),the Foraminiferal Monitoring Index(FMI),bio-diversity and abundance in an area.Pollution,on the other hand,will also lead to a high degree of pyritization of the tests of foraminifera,preferential reversion to asexual reproduction and so on.In this regard,foraminifera could be used as a powerful proxy for monitoring the quality of marine environments and ecosystems.