Recent benthic foraminifera of shallow marine environment from the Egyptian   red sea coast

Hashem Abbas Madkour

National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Red Sea branch, Hurghada, 85411 Egypt.

E-mail: madkour_hashem@yahoo.com

Accepted 08 January, 2013

Abstract

Sixty-nine samples have been collected from three coastal lagoons Abu-Shaar, Umm al-Huwaytāt and Marsa Shūni Lagoons along the Egyptian Red Sea coast.  Coastal lagoons are areas of hyper- saline waters protected by linear barrier reefs. Seagrasses and algae are widely distributed especially in Marsa Shūni Lagoon on the soft muddy and sandy carbonate sediments on the flanks of the reefs and channels between them. The distinctive species are taxonomically identified in the marine sediments of the shallow marine environments from the coastal lagoons are carried out along the Egyptian Red Sea. They compared with the benthic foraminiferal assemblages of the other parts of the northern Red Sea coast and the Eastern Mediterranean. Their percentage distribution is relatively similar to that of other littoral assemblages of the Red Sea coast. This resemblance is less marked with that of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea coasts.

Keywords: Benthic foraminifera, taxonomy, comparison, Coastal lagoons, Red Sea, Egypt.