NO. I FORAMINIFERA IN LONG ISLAND SOUND — BUZAS J 



sample was washed in a bank of sieves having openings of 125 

 and 62/*,. The two fractions were then placed in petri dishes under 

 which were fastened grids drawn on black cardboard. The "living" 

 (those Foraminifera which contained protoplasm at the time of col- 

 lection as indicated by the stain) and "dead" (empty tests) popula- 

 tions were then counted while wet. The wet volume of each sample 

 was measured by refilling the sample jar to the tape level with water 

 and decanting into a graduated cylinder. This procedure was repeated 

 four times and the values averaged. At a few near-shore stations the 

 number of dead individuals was well over 1,000, and in these samples 

 only the living population was counted wet. The sample was then 

 dried and a flotation method using CC1 4 , described by Cushman 

 (1948), was used to concentrate the tests. The sample was then 

 aliquoted using a microsplit described by Skolnick (1959), and the 

 dead population was estimated from the fraction counted. 



Particle-size analyses were made on 59 stations. The methods 

 used were essentially those described by Krumbein and Petti John 

 (1938). After removal of electrolytes by decantation, the sediment 

 was wet-sieved into fractions coarser and finer than 62/x. The coarse 

 fraction was then given a standard Ro-tap sieve analysis. The fine 

 fraction was dispersed in a N/100 solution of sodium oxalate and 

 agitated on a milk-shake machine for 10 minutes before being given 

 a pipette analysis. 



SIGNIFICANCE OF A FORAMINIFERAL SAMPLE 

 Introduction 



Some of the objectives of a quantitative study of foramini feral 

 populations in a given area are: 1, To establish the relative abun- 

 dance with which various species are distributed; 2, to compare the 

 relative abundance of living and dead populations ; 3, to estimate the 

 standing crop or number of living Foraminifera per unit area ; 4, to 

 estimate the number of living Foraminifera seasonally, which will 

 also give a better estimate of 3 ; 5, to estimate the number of dead 

 Foraminifera per unit area so that a living to total (L/T) ratio can 

 be calculated as an indicator of relative rates of sedimentation. 



In order to accomplish these ends an undisturbed sample of known 

 surface area and volume must be obtained. Phleger (1951) used a 

 small plastic core liner which has an inner diameter of 3.5 cm. 

 (If inches). He sampled the surface water immediately above 

 the core and the top centimeter of the core for his foraminiferal 

 analysis. Since then other workers have adopted this method of 



