Unravelling a hidden dimension: chemical communication in living benthic foraminifera

• Applicant: Dr. Laurie Charrieau, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Microbial Ecology and Applied Microbiology ; Sensory and Behavioural Biology ; Geology ; Oceanography
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 533003889

Benthic foraminifera, which are among the most diverse and abundant micro-organisms inhabiting past and modern seafloors, can build a shell that has great preservation potential in the sediment. As environmental conditions are reflected in their faunal composition, foraminifera have been widely used for past and present climate reconstructions. To improve the reliability of these reconstructions, it is necessary to understand all the mechanisms behind the population dynamics of benthic foraminifera. However, we are currently lacking insights into their fundamental ecological interactions like feeding or reproduction, with direct implications for their population densities. Previous culture studies revealed first evidence that foraminifera are able of chemical communication, which is a process largely used by other marine species, for example to regulate their population size. This project aims to discover the role of infochemicals during the feeding and reproduction process of benthic foraminifera. We hypothesise that chemical communication enables efficient foraging by individual specimens and coordinates the occurrence of reproduction events among the population. A large range of behaviour experiments will be implemented to validate these suggestions. Two contrasted but equally important groups of benthic foraminifera species will be tested: tropical symbiont-bearing large species, and cold deep-sea small species. Further, characteristics of the molecules used as infochemicals will be identified. The results of this project will significantly contribute to enhance the accuracy of our climate models, which are crucial to tackle the challenges of the current global climate change.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants