Differential rates of benthic foraminiferal test production in surface andsubsurface sediment habitats in the southern Adriatic Sea

Live communities and corresponding dead assemblages of benthic foraminifera recovered in box cores from the southern Adriatic Sea differ significantly with respect to the relative abundances of species and higher-order groups of foraminifera. Taphonomic destruction of disintegration-prone arenaceous species is held responsible for the observed strong reduction in relative abundance of arenaceous foraminifera in the dead assemblage. Systematic dif ferences in live and dead relative abundances of calcareous and calcite-cem ented arenaceous species may be due to differential rates of test productio n rather than selective taphonomic destruction. We observed that epifaunal or shallow-infaunal foraminifera are often overrepresented in the dead asse mblage, compared to their relative number in the live community, whereas de eper-infaunal species tend to be underrepresented. On this basis we hypothe size that test production rate of benthic foraminiferal species may be rela ted to their living depth in the sediment. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. A ll rights reserved.