Recent and modern benthic foraminifera along the Kveithola Trough (NW Barents Sea), environmental and paleo-environmental implications.

The distribution of the benthic foraminiferal fauna (recent and modern species) in the Kveithola Trough (NW Barents Sea) was studied in four depositional settings identified on the basis of surface depositional structures, sediment types and present ecosystem characteristics. The sediment samples were collected during the CORIBAR cruise aimed at drilling glacigenic sediments in a palaeo-ice stream depositional system in the western Barents Sea. We specifically report the qualitative data of the benthic foraminiferal biodiversity in surface sediment samples (uppermost 3 cm). In the drift area the recent and living benthic foraminiferal assemblage is characterised by typically oxygen-depleted environmental taxa (Globobulimina sp. and Stainforthia sp.). This area appears a stagnant environment, strongly affected by low-oxygen, stressed environmental conditions in which foraminifera developed a life strategy aimed to increase the efficiency of food utilization and maximum resistance to ecological stress. All the sediments recovered in the drift area have a strong smell of H2S, with organic matter-rich sediments colonised by Pogonophora worms