Benthic foraminifera from the Mauritanian shelf and upper slope

Foraminiferal assemblage data was collected from the top 0-1 cm sediment layer of 30 surface samples from the Mauritanian slope and shelf. The material was sampled with a box corer (50x50x55cm), grabs and gravity corer (6m lenght) during the expedition MSM16/3 of RV Maria S. Merian in October-November 2010. The samples range from water depths of 13 m on the shelf to 1310 m on the middle bathyal slope. They are from the inner and outer shelf, upper bathyal slope, canyons, coral mounds, the cold-water coral reef chains at 400–600 m water depth and the middle bathyal slope. The samples were washed over a 250 µm sieve and dried. Per sample 200 benthic foraminiferal specimens were counted on species level. 154 were documented with illustrations and descriptions. The purpose of the study was to investigate the foraminiferal faunas of the Mauritanian shelf and upper slope and their association with cold water coral habitats.