A note on the laboratory culture of benthic foraminifera collected from nearshore region off Goa, India

Abstract

A laboratory culture programme is established to extend credibility to foraminiferal-based techniques being used to generate the high-resolution proxy records for palaeoclimatic reconstruction. In order to obtain living specimen of foraminiferal species for laboratory culture experiments, a number of samples were analyzed from the nearshore region off Dias beach (Goa, India) which revealed the presence of 22 species. Among the living benthic foraminifera Rosalina leei was found in abundance and was used to establish a laboratory culture programme. The effect of different media (like plain sea water and Erdscheriber medium) and food on the growth of foraminiferal test is monitored initially. The results suggest that Erdscheriber medium is conducive for general growth and chamber formation. A further observation suggested that food is another governing factor for their growth in sea water. However, in case of Erdscheriber medium excess food supply retards the overall growth