Indian Journal of Geo-Marine Sciences Vol. 45(7), July 2016, pp. 875-881 Distribution of benthic foraminiferal assemblages in Nagavali river estuary, Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh 1Greeshma A.G, 1Jagannadha Rao, M., 2Karuna Karudu, T*. & 1Mallikarjuna Rao, M 1Department of Geology, 2Delta Studies Institute, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam-530017, India *[E-mail:
[email protected]] Received 04 April 2014; revised 16 May 2014 Fifteen sediment samples were collected from estuarine environment of Nagavali River Estuary and 237 foraminifera belonging to 23 species have been identified in the sediment samples. Faunal diversity 23% and distribution are 42% in this estuary. Q-mode cluster analysis revealed that the foraminifera could be grouped into 4 clusters. The Ammonia tepida, Noniondepressulum, Quinqueloculinaseminulum, Ammonia beccarii, Quinqueloculinasp., Nonionsp., are abundant species. Occurrence and distribution of foraminiferal assemblages studied in the Nagavali estuary sediments, infers that these sediments were deposited from marine to brackish environment. [Keywords: Foraminifera, hinterland, sedimentary environment, estuary, marine environment] Introduction Materials and Methods The East Coast of India is marked by major Sediment samples have been collected from 15 rivers, streams and drainage networks draining the stations in the Nagavali River estuary (Fig.1) using hinterland and joining the Bay of Bengal forming a Vanveen grab10. A 10 gm sample was soaked in varied sedimentary environments1-9. Nagavali water for 6 hours. The samples were washed over river estuary (18°10"-19°44"N and 82°53" - 63µm sieve and dried in the oven at 60°C. When ° 84 05"E) is located in the Srikakulam district, cooled carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is added at AndhraPradesh.