Fig 1.
Location of the 45 sample station around Moorea, French Polynesia (for details see Table 1).
Table 1.
Sample sites showing location, depth, calculated Fisher α indices, FORAM—Index (FI) values, and total number of genera and species recorded in individual environments.
Table 2.
Generic categorization of functional groups of foraminifera based on ecological preferences in warm water environments [31,64,65].
Fig 2.
Scanning electron micrographs of selected species of indicator foraminifera characterizing the major cluster habitats around Moorea Island.
Species that bear symbionts: 1. Coscinospira hemprichii Ehrenberg; 2. Peneroplis pertusus Forskål; 3. Borelis schlumbergeri Reichel; 4, 5. Amphisorus hemprichii Ehrenberg (Scale bar is 200μm); 6, 7. Sorites orbiculus Ehrenberg; 8, 9. Parasorites orbitolitoides Hofker; 10. Monalysidium confusa McCulloch; 11. Assilina (Operculina) ammonoides Schröter; 12. Amphistegina lessonii d’Orbigny; 13. Heterostegina depressa, d’Orbigny; Species associated with the symbiont-bearing taxa: 14. Schlumbergerina alveoliniformis Brady; 15. Anomalinella rostrata Brady; 16. Eponides repandus Fitchel and Moll; Opportunistic species: 17. Ammonia tepida Cushman; 18. Bolivina striatula Cushman 19. Bolivinella elegans Parr; 20. Bulimina sp. 1 (Scale bar is 50μm); 21. Buliminella elegantissima d’Orbigny; 22. Elongobula spicata Cushman and Parker; 23. Elphidium oceanicum Cushman; 24. Fursenkoina schreibersiana Czjzek; 25. Hopkinsina pacifica, Cushman; 26. Loxostomina limbata, Brady; 27. Nonionoides grateloupi d’Orbigny; 28. Reusella pacifica Cushman and McCulloch; 29. Sigmavirgulina tortuosa Brady; 30. Trifarina bradyi Cushman; Heterotrophic species: 31. Sagrinella convallaria, Millett; 32. Wiesnerella auriculata Egger; 33. Quinqueloculina cf. Q. semireticulosa Cushman; 34. Quinqueloculina funafutiensis, Chapman; 35. Quinqueloculina exsculpta Heron-Allen and Earland; 36. Quinqueloculina eburnea d’Orbigny; 37. Quinqueloculina cuvieriana d’Orbigny. Scale bar is 100μm for all magnifications.
Fig 3.
Abundance records of larger symbiont-bearing (LBF), Opportunistic (OPP) and Heterotrophic (HET) foraminifera within a) Opunohu and b) Cook’s Bay.
Fig 4.
Increase in Fisher α diversity indices from the bays to the back-reef habitats.
Fig 5.
Q-mode cluster diagram of sample sites exhibiting the presence of 6 major cluster groups.
Fig 6.
Map showing locations of the clusters stations.
The symbols represent the clusters defined in Fig 5.
Table 3.
Abundance records of selected genera of benthic foraminifera included in the Principal Component Analyses (PCA).
Amm, Ammonia; Amp, Amphistegina; Bol, Bolivina; Elph, Elphidium; Hau, Hauerina; Hom, Homotrema; Mil, Miliolinella; Pen, Peneroplis; Quin, Quinqueloculina; Schl, Schlumbergerina; Sor, Sorites; Tex, Textularia; Tri, Triloculina.
Fig 7.
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the foraminiferafauna showing a) principal components 1 and 2, and b) principalcomponents 1 and 3.
The symbols represent the clusters as defined in Fig 5.
Fig 8.
Ternary diagram showing percent abundances of wall structural types (porcellaneous, hyaline-perforate and agglutinated foraminifera) of individual sample sites around Moorea [55].
The symbols represent the clusters groups as defined in Fig 5.
Fig 9.
FI values plotted along transects in Opunohu and Cook’s Bays showing indices rising from the innermost bays towards the reefal sites.