My specific academic interest is based on the study of benthic foraminifera assemblages both in modern and past environments. Benthic foraminifera are optimal environmental indicators: they inhabit a wide range of aquatic environments, and they are abundant in marine sediments; they have a short life cycle and fast turnover rate, and they are highly sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. Moreover, their calcareous tests can be easily preserved in sediments in the geological record. With the study of modern benthic foraminifera assemblages, my aim is to enhance our understanding of present-day conditions in shallow-marine environments in the Red Sea and monitor their future change. However, since the present is the key to the past, we can use modern assemblages to interpret what we find in the fossil record: I also aim to use fossil benthic foraminifera assemblages to investigate the evolution of a land-attached carbonate platform during the Quaternary in the Red Sea.

Modern and fossil foraminifera Paleoecology Carbonate Sedimentology Geochemistry Micropaleontology