The study area is located on the inner Agulhas Bank around Plettenberg Bay, southern Cape Province, South Africa (Fig. 1). The Agulhas Bank is a transitional environment between the cold-temperate Benguela Current regime of the south-eastern South Atlantic and the warm-temperate Agulhas Current regime of the south-western Indian Ocean. Three distinct faunal assemblages (A, B and C) were identified in the study area. These are aligned in three consecutive, coast-parallel belts, assemblage A forming the inshore belt, assemblage C the offshore belt and assemblage B the in-between belt. Assemblage A is composed of Textularia-group individuals and Pararotalia sp., Cibicides lobatulus and Planorbulina mediterranensis. It occupies the nearshore belt up to 50 m water depth in sediments composed of very fine, fine and medium sands, with some coarse and very coarse sands. Assemblage B is composed of Bolivina cf. pseudopunctata, Cassidulina laevigata, Ammonia beccarii, Bolivina tortuosa and Bulimina elongata. It occupies water depths from 50–70 m, but may locally extend down to 90 m and, within the bay itself, upward to 20 m in fine and very fine sands containing some medium sand and mud. Assemblage C is dominated by Cassidulina laevigata, Bolivina cf. pseudopunctata, Bulimina elongata and Ammonia beccarii. In contrast to assemblage B which is dominated by B. cf. pseudopunctata, assemblage C is dominated by C. laevigata. Assemblage C is mainly confined to water depths of 70–100 m in sediments dominated by very fine sand (0.063–0.125 mm) containing some coarser sediment and mud. The distribution of the forams with respect to water depth, sediment composition and other environmental parameters suggests that it is mainly controlled by a combination of environmental parameters. No tangible relationship was found between the open shelf foraminifer communities and those of estuaries and lagoons along the South African coast.

研究区域位于南非开普省南部普列滕贝格湾附近的内阿格拉哈斯河岸（图1）。Agulhas银行是东南大西洋东南部的温带本格拉洋流政权与印度洋西南部的温带Agulhas洋流政权之间的过渡环境。在研究区域中确定了三种不同的动物组合（A，B和C）。它们在三个连续的，平行于海岸的带中对齐，组件A形成近海带，组件C形成近海带，组件B形成中间带。组合A由Textularia群个体和Pararotalia sp。，Cibicides lobatulus和Planorbulina mediterranensis组成。它占据了近岸水带，水深达50 m，其沉积物由极细，细和中型的沙子组成，还有一些粗，非常粗的沙子。组件B由Bolivina cf.组成。pseudopunctata，Cassidulina金樱子，氨beccarii，Bolivina tortuosa和Bulimina泡桐。它的水深为50-70 m，但可能会局部向下延伸至90 m，并且在海湾本身内，在包含一些中型沙子和泥浆的细砂和超细砂中，砂土的宽度会向上延伸至20 m。组合物C主要由Cassidulina laevigata（Bolivina cf. ）主导。pseudopunctata，Bulimina泡桐和氨水贝卡里。在对比组合B，其是由主导B.比照 伪点虫，组合C由拉氏梭菌（C. laevigata）主导。组合物C主要限于沉积物中水深为70–100 m，该沉积物以非常细的沙子（0.063–0.125 mm）为主导，其中包含一些较粗的沉积物和泥浆。相对于水深，沉积物成分和其他环境参数而言，孔的分布表明它主要受环境参数的组合控制。在开阔的有孔虫群落与沿南非海岸的河口和泻湖的群落之间没有发现任何切实的关系。