Abstract
Abstract The abundance of large agglutinated tests in brown oxidized mud has suggested that high biomasses of foraminifera occur in troughs on the western Arctic Eurasian shelf. To verify this, we measured foraminiferal biomass (protoplasmic volume) at seven stations close to 800N in the St. Anna Trough, a shelf depression open to the Arctic Basin. The abundance of arenaceous tests was high owing to good postmortem preservation within a thick (30 cm) surface oxidized layer of the sediment. Foraminiferal biomass was moderate (range = 0.06-1.7 glm2) compared with common shelf values and increased with increasing water depth. The foraminiferal contribution to the biomass of the benthic community was negligible on the slopes of the trough but below 500 m water depth, where the macrofauna is scarce, the foraminifera:macrofauna ratio reached 0.3. The bulk of the foraminiferal biomass consisted of specimens approximately 2 mm in diameter. The volume of cytoplasm in tests of the dominant foraminiferan Reophax pil...
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