Benthic foraminifera as bioindicators of environmental quality of Dammam Al-Jubail area, Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In order to assess the quality of the coastal marine environments, quantitative analysis of benthic foraminifera is used. Twenty-six sediment samples were collected from the coastal area of the Dammam Al-Jubail coast (97 km long), Arabian Gulf, Saudi Arabia. Different parameters were calculated such as the total foraminiferal number, dead/living percentage of foraminifera, and species diversity. Three functional groups of benthic foraminifera were calculated, namely the symbiont-bearing taxa, opportunistic taxa, and small heterotrophic taxa. These functional groups were used to calculate the FORAM Index. The benthic foraminifera in the study area presented a low diversification and moderate abundance. The symbiont-bearing taxa were the dominated group along the study area and the opportunistic taxa were low. The FORAM Index indicated that the Dammam Al-Jubail area is conducive to reef growth with some environmental changes in Dammam area.