Recent benthic foraminiferal distributions and taxonomy, test abnormalities, sediment, biodiversity and environmental analysis along the coast between Kizilağaç (Manavgat) and Gazipaşa (Antalya)

In this study which was carried out along the approximately 95 km long coast between Kızılağaç and Gazipaşa (Antalya) in the south of Türkiye, it was aimed to determine the benthic foraminiferal taxonomy, distribution, biodiversity and sediment characteristics. The variations in numerical data along the coast were determined by foraminifera, sediment and environment analysis. A total of 7 orders, 39 families, 58 genera, and 95 recent benthic foraminifera species were determined. Amphistegina lobifera Larsen, 1976 is the dominant species and Amphisteginidae Cushman, 1927 is the dominant family. The number of foraminifera shells, the number of species and the number of different organisms which were low in the northwest of the coast were increased towards the southeast. It was observed that the number of foraminifers with morphological abnormalities increase to 42 and the hyaline shell walled, less coloured, and large sized foraminifera are predominate along the coast. In the biodiversity analysis, it was observed that the species diversity and evenness are high along the coast, the species richness is low, the Alpha diversity decreases towards the southeast and the Beta diversity increases. It was concluded that the coloration of the shells and the abnormalities in their morphology increase due to the increase of heavy metals by the ICP-MS analysis performed on three samples with a large number of colored benthic foraminiferal shells. In the sediment analysis, it has been observed that the average grain sizes vary between 0.35-7.1 mm, the dark colored and coarse grained sediments become lighter in color towards the southeast, the grain size becomes thinner, and the sorting improves. Quaternary aged units were separated as marine, coastal, plain, delta and aluvial sediments and were shown on the geological map. Hypersaline marsh, normal marine marsh, shelf marine environments and hyposaline lagoon environments were determined according to the shell wall types of benthic foraminifers.