| Summary: | The quantity and quality of organic matter reaching the deep-sea floor is believed to exert a strong control on benthic foraminiferal assemblages, including the diversity and density of populations and the distribution patterns of species. In addition, some species seem to be associated with strong seasonality in primary productivity. We test relationships between diversity and mean annual productivity based on carefully selected datasets (>63-μm sieve fraction including soft-shelled taxa) from the NE Atlantic, Weddell Sea, and Equatorial and North Pacific. We used (1) ‘live’ (Rose Bengal stained) foraminiferal density, (2) mean annual surface productivity and (3) estimated organic carbon flux to the seafloor as proxies for food supply to the benthos. A suite of species richness, diversity and dominance measures all decreased significantly with increasing density, whereas species density showed a significant increase. In contrast, none of the relationships between these measures and primary productivity or its seasonality were significant. Only the Margalef and Brillouin indices exhibited a significant decrease with increasing values of carbon flux to the sea floor. When sites from the NE Atlantic were treated separately, significant relationships (−ve) emerged between flux and all diversity measures, and between foraminiferal densities and most (8 of 9) diversity measures. For the equatorial Pacific, however, these relationships were mostly (16 of 18) not significant. Size fractioned (>150-μm and >63-μm fraction including phytodetritus) data from the NE Atlantic samples yielded significant correlations (−ve) between several diversity measures and foraminiferal densities, but many fewer when related to estimated carbon flux to the seafloor. We also considered published datasets from the Arctic (Wollenburg and Mackensen Mar Micropaleontol 34: 153–185, 1998) and North Atlantic (Corliss et al. Deep-Sea Res 56: 835–841, 2009) Oceans. Diversity values (Fisher α index based on ‘live’ counts) from seasonally ...
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