Image dataset of common benthic foraminiferal taxa in the North Atlantic seafloor surface sediments (59.5°N transect) between the Labrador sea and Faeroe-Shetland sill

Anna Tikhonova; Sofia Merenkova; Sergei Korsun; Alexander Matul

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2019.104554

Image dataset of common benthic foraminiferal taxa in the North Atlantic seafloor surface sediments (59.5°N transect) between the Labrador sea and Faeroe-Shetland sill

Data Brief. 2019 Sep 26:26:104554. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104554. eCollection 2019 Oct.

Authors

Anna Tikhonova¹, Sofia Merenkova^{1

2}, Sergei Korsun¹, Alexander Matul¹

Affiliations

¹ Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia.
² Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia.

Abstract

The article presents a microphotograph dataset of 106 taxa of benthic foraminifera (BF) from surface sediments collected at 26 grab station during RV Akademik Ioffe 51st cruise (summer 2016). The selected stations are located along a 59.5°N transect in the North Atlantic. This is the key area of climate control, where the interaction of warm surface and cold deep water masses takes place, which affects the operation of the global oceanic thermohaline circulation. The analysis of the benthic foraminiferal assemblages allows us to describe the properties of bottom water mass, to draw conclusions about the environmental parameters at the bottom. This photo dataset will facilitate the identification of species of BF, and thus will accelerate the routine process of micropaleontological analysis and the subsequent reconstruction of environmental conditions.

Keywords: Benthic foraminifera; Biodiversity; Micropaleontology; Microphotograph; North Atlantic.