Illustrated Guide to Benthic Foraminifera of Puget Sound

Benthic foraminifera are microbiota that live on the sediment surface of the oceans, estuaries and fjords such as Puget Sound —the southern part of the Salish Sea.  This website provides an illustrated guide to the genera and species found during our studies of the Puget Sound Foram Project.

This website provides photographs—both light microscope and scanning electron microscope images of each species found in Puget Sound.  Each genus and species is record with their original taxonomic descriptions, where possible.  Higher taxonomies (classes, orders and superfamilies) of these species is documented here, following the system of Pawlowski et al. (2013).  Generic and species designations follow the World Registrar of Marine Taxa  where appropriate for northeastern Pacific margin morphologies. This is the first attempt at a comprehensive record of benthic foraminifera from Puget Sound.

Samples for the Puget Sound Foram Project are generously supplied by the Washington State Department of Ecology, Marine Sediment Monitoring Program that are collected from annual offshore sampling programs.  Thus, intertidal, and water depths less than 2 m are not sampled.  Marsh and tide flat taxa are rare in our samples.

Credit: Dave Argento