STANDING CROP, VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION, AND MORPHOMETRICS OF <i>AMMONIA BECCARII</i> (LINNÉ)1

Abstract

Certain aspects of the ecology and the biology of the foraminifera Ammonia beccarii were investigated. The top 4 cm c replicate core samples from near the entrance to the West Passage of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, taken in 1963 were individually examined; presumed living and dead specimens were found at all four levels. Data on over 5,000 living and 7,500 dead specimens were collected from 283 samples. The use of a two‐stage sampling technique for determination of an optimum number of samples is described. The frequency distributions of the numbers of both presumed living and dead A. beccarii could be normalized successfully with a log (X + 1) transformation. At each of the four levels, the numbers of both living and dead individuals remained statistically constant, and the number of presumed living A. beccarii was the same in the three top 1‐cm levels but significantly greater there than at the fourth, while there were significantly fewer dead specimens in the first centimeter than in the third and fourth.