The study is designed to determine the importance of organic carbon flux on benthic foraminiferal morphotype patterns and carbon isotopic data from Holocene deep-sea benthic foraminiferal. The study will be based on surficial sediments beneath a surface productivity gradient on the northwest African margin. An analysis of benthic foraminiferal morphotypes, based on test shape and mode of coiling, will provide information on the depth distribution of microhabitats of the deep-sea fauna. Carbon isotopic analyses of epifaunal and infaunal benthic foraminifera will be carried out to test the hypothesis that the microhabitats in which species live influence the carbon isotopic composition of the test, The morphotype and carbon isotopic data will be compared with estimated organic carbon flux data to determine if these methods can be used to reconstruct organic carbon flux in ancient oceans.
