TAXONOMY, DISTRIBUTION OF EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN BENTHIC FORAMINIFERA

The present study aims to investigate the foraminiferal assemblages of the recent samples of the Gulf of ¿skenderun in terms of abundance and diversity, to determine their bathymetrical and the geographical distributions. In this manner, foraminiferal fauna of the 34 grab samples collected from the infralittoral to lower circalittoral zone of the Gulf of ¿skenderun has been taxonomically identified and quantitatively analyzed. Based on the quantitative data, the benthic foraminiferal diversity and the abundance of species have been determined for each sample. The geographical and bathymetrical distributions of the relative abundances of the dominant species have been mapped. These distribution patterns of benthic foraminifers have been compared with the distribution patterns from the Aegean Sea, Marmara Sea, western Mediterranean, other parts of the eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea. In this study, the applied statistical analyses reveal that depth is not one of the main controlling factors of the distribution of the assemblages. Indeed, no correlation was recognized between the diversity of the species and the corresponding depth of the samples.