USING BENTHIC FORAMINIFERA AS ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATOR IN ZHOUSHAN HARBOUR, CHINA

In this study, 43 surface samples were collected from central part of Zhoushan Harbour, and foraminifera studies were carried out, as well as environmental parameters, such as heavy metal concentration, TOC and et al. were monitored to determine the local assemblage characteristics and the anthropogenic environmental stress on it. Totally 33 genus 60 species were recognized. The results showed that, planktonic foraminifera were found in all stations with small size, low diversity and non-living individuals. The benthic foraminfera assemblages were dominated by hyaline test species, with an average percentage of 86.71%, and an average abundance of 1676 individuals per 50 grams dry samples. The assemblage of study area were mainly marginal marine environmental genus, Ammonia beccarii vars.- Ammonia maruhasii- Epistominella naraensis. The study showed significant relationship between the distribution of Ammonia beccarii vars. and Epistominella naraensis, the former has relatively large test size, while the later has small size, revealed different hydrodynamic process. Compared with the previous researches, new characteristics could be concluded as followed: (1) the increasing in percentages of agglutinated species, with the highest value of 15.89%; (2) appearance of some pollution tolerant species, e.g. Eggerella advenum and Fursenkoina fusiformis; (3) higher ratio of deformed individuals in sensitive species, especially in the relatively closed inner part of the harbour, with the highest ratio of 8.53%; (4) the deformation index (DI) showed great consistence with the distribution of human activities, but not environmental parameters, due to the unstable environmental condition. Sediment transport and human activities both have great impacts on the distribution of foraminifera, and the study could provide basic foraminiferal data for further study as environmental indicator.