Benthic foraminiferal biomonitoring in northern Norway: Establishing reference conditions, Ecological Quality Statuses and responses to organic matter
Benthic foraminifera are microscopically small organisms living in marine sediments where they live in tiny little houses also known as tests. Foraminifera respond rapidly to environmental changes and as many of their tests preserve in the sediment their assemblages can provide estimates of previous...
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| Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10852/89428 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-92036 |
| Summary: | Benthic foraminifera are microscopically small organisms living in marine sediments where they live in tiny little houses also known as tests. Foraminifera respond rapidly to environmental changes and as many of their tests preserve in the sediment their assemblages can provide estimates of previous environmental conditions. This makes them good candidates to study human impacts on the environment but we also have to understand their responses to environmental changes. By using benthic foraminifera to reconstruct pre-human impact environmental conditions, the first study of this thesis found no clear impact of fish farming in an intensively fish farmed fjord at 2-3 km distance from the farms. The second study showed the amount of microalgal-carbon foraminifera can process may strongly vary within a fjord. Oxygen concentrations in the sediment may influence the ability of foraminifera to process carbon. The third study suggests analysing benthic foraminifera from the less labour intensive > 125 µm fraction may be sufficient to assess human impact in relatively unpolluted fjords. This thesis made important steps towards using foraminifera to study human impacts on the environment. |
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