Ecology and distribution of Recent planktonic Foraminifera in eastern part of Arabian Sea

Abstract

Thirty species of living planktonic Foraminifera have been studied from 97 plankton tows collected from the eastern Arabian Sea with an accent on their ecological and distributional aspects. Species density is higher with less dominance in the deep (0-200 m) than in the surface (0-10 m) tows. Further, latitudinal gradient of some species which have a definite bearing on hydrography of the sea, has been outlined. Relative production of planktonic Foraminifera shows that it is high in the southern Arabian Sea south of 15-degrees-N, but low in the northern one from 15-degrees-N northwards based on mean total specimens occurring in plankton samples of the areas of study.