Relationship Between Test Morphology and Bathymetry in Recent Bolivina albatrossi Cushman, Northwestern Gulf of Mexico: ABSTRACT

Abstract

An automated video digitizer and closed-form Fourier series analysis were used in this study to quantify benthic foraminiferal test morphology. This approach allows morphology to be described rapidly, objectively, and accurately and to be compared statistically to important environmental variables. Canonical discriminant analysis reduced the variable dimensions and revealed specific shape components relatable to bathymetry in Holocene specimens of Bolivina albatrossi Cushman from the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Populations of B. albatrossi exhibit reduced test triangularity and increased surface sculpture relief with increasing water depth. Margin lobateness decreases with increasing depth. A depth classification algorithm using Fourier harmonic amplitudes divides the ba hyal zone into four subzones. With further development this approach could allow paleoenvironmental reconstructions to be automated and quantified. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1422------------