Morphometric analysis on benthic foraminifera through Atomic Force Microscopy

We developed a new non-destructive procedure for quantitatively describing morphological features in benthic foraminiferal tests. The proposed approach is based on nanometric three-dimensional analysis of test outlines under an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The AFM provided us a useful tool to analyse some new morphometric features that cannot be investigated with other methods. Specifically, pore density, pore diameter, pore depth, pore surface area, porosity and roughness can be easily estimated in Ammonia tepida tests. In respect to all the far-field microscopy optical methods the AFM characterization allows a high spatial resolution analysis (≈nanometres) in the definition of the pore characteristics especially regarding their vertical extent (i.e. 3D). The proposed approach, tailored for Ammonia tepida, could be used to further explore the potential of pores as an environmental proxy.