The investigators will culture benthic foraminifera under controlled conditions of temperature, organic carbon concentration, and isotopic composition in order to determine the controls on carbon isotope fractionation and burrowing behavior. They will collect live specimens from the upper continental slope, selecting taxa used by paleoceanographers, culture them in mixed and monospecific populations with in situ measurement of pore-waters, manipulate ambient temperature and pore-water chemistry, observe burrowing behavior, and analyze isotopic composition and morphology.
