Vertical Variations of Benthic Foraminiferal Assemblages in Core Sediments on Yeoja Bay, Southern Coast of Korea: Implications for Late Holocene Sea-Level Change

In the four sedimentary cores from Yeoja Bay, the analyses of grain size, benthic foraminiferal species compositions, assemblages and statistics were carried out to investigate the effects of late Holocene sea-level change on benthic foraminifera. The core sediments were mainly composed of fine-gained silt and clay. The benthic foraminifera were classified into 27 species of 16 genera, 30 species of 21 genera, 50 species of 29 genera and 52 species of 29 genera in Core YC-1 to 4, respectively. In the result of cluster analysis, it seemed that Group I (Core YC-l and 2) of representative A. beccarii assemblages was deposited in upper bay environment and Group 2 (Core YC-3 and 4) of representative E. clavatum-A. beccarii assemblages was deposited in inner bay environment affected by offshore water. hi the result of species composition analysis, the production frequency of A. beccarii was gradually decreased from low layer to upper layer, whereas production frequency of E. clavatum and P.F./T.F. was gradually increased to upward. These change patterns appeared in benthic and planktonic foraminifera seemed to reflect the late Holocene sea-level rise in Yeoja Bay.