Foraminifera and Their Applications

Foraminifera are single-celled organisms of which most forms possess a shell of variable composition. Predominantly marine, they are abundant, diverse, widespread and importantly have a long fossil record. Foraminifera are thus an excellent tool for determining the age of sediments, correlating between different units over local and global scales and reconstructing past environments. As such, they have been found to have a vast array of applications useful to science, industry and society. This book provides an overview of foraminifera – what they are, how and where they live – followed by a series of chapters laying out the highly varied applications of foraminifera. Each is supported by real-world examples from the fields of mineral geology, archaeology, engineering, environmental science and petroleum geosciences.

The two introductory chapters start at the very beginning, detailing the history of foraminiferal research including a fun nod to possibly the earliest mention of foraminifera in the written record. This comes from the Greek geographer and historian Strabo who wrote that the loose material close to the pyramids, now known to be the large benthic foraminifera Nummulites, could plausibly have been fossilized lentils – remnants of the original pyramid builders’ meals! There is also an expanded piece on Henry B. Brady's important contribution to the field closely followed by a brief summary of standardized workflows in foraminiferal research. Chapter 3 has comprehensive sections dealing with the biology, morphology and classification of foraminifera, benthic and planktic, bringing together information from previous works but with classifications (based on foraminiferal wall texture, chamber arrangement and aperture) largely from Haynes (1981). Chapters 4 and 5 highlight the diverse ecologies and environments of modern foraminifera and their fossil counterparts, respectively. Chapter 5 also includes a rather brief discussion of foraminifera in palaeo-climatic and -oceanographic reconstructions. In the following chapter the evolutionary history of the different major foraminiferal groups split into agglutinated, larger benthic, smaller benthic, and planktic foraminifera are detailed in preparation for Chapter 7 on biostratigraphy. Here, the basic principles of using foraminifera to divide up geological time and the various schemes available are introduced. One note for academics is that the geological timescale is subject to constant updates and revisions as better sections, refined dating techniques, etc. emerge – and so, although the principles are sound, the specifics may need updating. At the time of writing this book review the Geologic Timescale 2012 (Gradstein et al. 2012) and a revised biostratigraphic scheme for planktic foraminifera (Wade et al. 2011) are available. In Chapter 8 the role of foraminifera in the field of sequence stratigraphy (dividing up the rock record into unconformably bound units) and key reference terms are discussed.

The most novel and meatiest aspect of this contribution is the >100 page chapter (9) on the use of foraminifera in petroleum geology, accompanied by a wealth of detailed case studies from around the world. Clearly the author has many insights given his extensive experience as an industrial micropalaeontologist and biostratigrapher and it is here that the book is at its best. The chapter starts by setting out the principles of petroleum geology for the beginner, i.e. what rock characteristics are needed for a successful petroleum system, and then follows through the standard industrial workflow dealing with foraminiferal uses (predominately as biostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental indicators) in reservoir exploration, characterization and during well-site operations.

Chapters 10 through 13 cover the diverse range of foraminiferal applications in the various fields of archaeology, mineral geology, engineering and finally environmental sciences with a few examples of how foraminifera have been utilized in each theme.

It is relatively difficult to expound the many virtues of foraminifera in depth and several of the highlighted fields are still in their relative infancy, e.g. benthic foraminifera as pollution indicators, such that many of these chapters are relatively short. There are included, however, plenty of pointers to further reading. The figures are well made and informative throughout and the chapters are logically laid out, making them easy to read. Whilst many books have been written on foraminifera focusing on various aspects of their life, environment and/or applications, this new contribution is a nice one-stop introduction for those looking to get a broad overview of foraminifera and their real-world applications. For those workers specifically interested in gaining a more in-depth understanding of how foraminifera are used in the petroleum industry, Chapter 9 would be worth the cover price alone.

Kirsty Edgar

Leverhulme Research Fellow

School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

E-mail: [email protected]

© 2014 Kirsty Edgar