Changing structure of benthic foraminiferal communities due to declining pH: Results from laboratory culture experiments

The ocean absorbs large amounts of CO 2 emitted from human activities, which results in a decrease in seawater pH. Marine calcifying organisms such as foraminifera, are most likely to be affected by this declining pH. In this study, we collected sediments from five stations of different depths (34–73 m) in a continental shelf of the Yellow Sea. The entire benthic foraminiferal communities together with sea sediments were cultured under three constant pHs (8.3, 7.8, and 7.3) for 6 and 12 weeks in the laboratory to study their responses to pH or incubation time. The microcosm’s experimental results obtained showed that most of the foraminiferal community parameters (abundance, species richness, Margalef index, and Shannon-Wiener diversity) decreased significantly ( p