About the project
The European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) were established to provide guidelines for monitoring the quality of marine ecosystems.
Monitoring the status of marine environments is traditionally based on macrofauna surveys, for which standardized methods have been established.
Objectives
The main aim of the international FOBIMO working group is to develop and standardize methods to establish benthic foraminifera in environmental monitoring.
Background
Benthic Foraminifera are good indicators of environmental status because of their fast turnover rates, high degree of specialization, and the preservation of dead assemblages in the fossil record. Due to the growing interest in foraminiferal bio-monitoring during the last decades and the lack of standardized methodology, a group of international scientists established the FOBIMO working group in 2011.
Since then a standardized sampling protocol was adopted and has been published. Additionally, members of the FOBIMO group are exploring the applicability of an internationally well-established marine biotic index (AMBI) for use on benthic foraminifera; the Foram-AMBI.
Cooperation
The international FOBIMO group.