AUTHOR=Gooday Andrew J. , Wawrzyniak-Wydrowska Brygida TITLE=Macrofauna-sized foraminifera in epibenthic sledge samples from five areas in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone (equatorial Pacific) JOURNAL=Frontiers in Marine Science VOLUME=9 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/marine-science/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.1059616 DOI=10.3389/fmars.2022.1059616 ISSN=2296-7745 ABSTRACT=
Benthic foraminifera cannot be sampled adequately using a single device. Smaller taxa are best collected using multicorers, the larger with box corers, but towed devices (dredges, trawls and epibenthic sledges) also retain many larger species. Here, we describe macrofaunal (>300 µm) foraminiferal assemblages obtained using an epibenthic sledge (EBS) in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (eastern equatorial Pacific), a region hosting seafloor deposits of polymetallic nodules. Twelve EBS samples were collected in four areas licenced for exploration by the International Seabed Authority (ISA) to German, IOM, Belgium and French contractors, and to APEI-3, one of the protected Areas of Special Scientific Interest designated by the ISA. We recognised 280 morphospecies among 1954 specimens, with between 74 (IOM) and 121 (Belgium) in particular areas. Most (92.7%) were single-chambered monothalamids, of which 75 species (26.8%) belonged to the Komokioidea (‘komoki’), 47 (16.8%) to branched and unbranched tubes, 33 (11.8%) to chain-like and 32 (11.4%) to various ‘komoki-like’ forms. Fragments of megafaunal xenophyophores represented 21 species (7.50%), including