Neogloboquadrina dutertrei (d'Orbigny, 1839)


This species (Fig. 32) lives in a wide range of tropical and subtropical environments and may even occur as a rare component in assemblages transitional to polar assemblages. As expected from the biogeographic distribution, N. dutertrei has wide tolerances for the analysed physical conditions but shows narrower tolerances or more pronounced distribution pattern for summer conditions when relative abundances and sea surface temperature, sea surface salinity, vertical temperature gradient, and density are compared. In contrast to other species with a wide biogeographic range (compare G. truncatulinoides) the species is restricted to areas with relativey warm waters at 200 m depth.

The latitudinal distribution pattern of N. dutertrei (peaks at different latitudes) is reminiscent of that observed in G. bulloides and G. glutinata. In its relation with most physical parameters N. dutertrei seems to increase in its relative abundance where G. bulloides declines. N. dutertrei is known to occur near the deep chlorophyll maximum (Fairbanks et al., 1980; Fairbanks and Wiebe, 1980). It is common in tropical productive environments including ocean margins, in contrast to preferences of G. bulloides and G. glutinata for cooler productive water masses.

The taxonomic differentiation in Neogloboquadrina is problematic. A review and arguments for the possible existence of a separate tropical and a subtropical western North Atlantic population were presented by Hilbrecht (in press).



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Figure 32: Neogloboquadrina dutertrei (d'Orbigny, 1839). Plots of relative abundance vs. selected physical parameters and latitude. For preferences in numeric form see appendix.

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