Biodiversity of Foraminifera Occurring at Alibag and Nearby Coastal Area

Abstract

The foraminifera are hole bearers. They are single celled protists with shells. Their many forms are aquatic, primarily marine. They belong to class of amoeboid protists. About 275,000 species are recognized, both living and fossil. They are usually less than 1mm in size, but some are much larger. The largest species may reach up to 20cm. The biodiversity, coloration index and microscopic observational studies on foraminifera gives information regarding biostratigraphy, ocean acidification patterns etc. of the respective coastal region. The foraminifera can also act as pollution indicator. In the present study various sand samples from different coast near alibag area were studied for biodiversity and coloration index analysis. Alibag coastal area shows remarkable diversity of foraminifera including different species like Bathysiphon, Elphidium, Textularia, Saccorhiza, Saccamina, Spiroloculina etc. The coloration index and visual analysis test indicate that most varieties of foraminifera shows average age of 10 years giving light on the sand life pattern of Alibag coastal region.