Impact of pollution on coastal zone monitoring with benthic foraminifera of Tuticorin, south east coast of India

Magnitude of corrosive effect, lower than normal ornamentation, sutural thickenings, pore enlargement and widening of apertures in foraminifera were taken as indices of the pollution impact on the coastal zone of Tuticorin. Pollution caused reduced diversity with a decrease in foraminiferal population. More over, there was a reduction in size followed by test wall thickening in Ammonia and Florilus. The dispersal and dilution of the pollutants resulted in faunal abundances. The effluents caused morphological anomalies such as erosion along peripheries, abnormal growth of the end chambers inferred dissolution and consequent destruction of small thin walled biota.