2023 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 17-35
Planktonic foraminifera are unicellular marine zooplankton with calcite shells. Important characteristics of planktonic foraminifera include the preservability of calcite shells as microfossils in sediments and the recordability of environmental and ecological information as their shells were calcified. Some planktonic foraminifera species have been found to possess an endosymbiotic relationship with algae, known as “photosymbiosis.” Overall, photosymbiosis is an evolutionary and nutritionally important ecology, and it also plays an important role in understanding the Earthʼs surface system in terms of material cycling and carbon cycling in particular. In this paper, I briefly review the current knowledge on planktonic foraminifera and photosymbiosis and outline the studies we have conducted so far with focus on the extraction of photosymbiotic signals and the biological phenomena concerning photosymbiosis. Finally, I discuss the prospects of further research on photosymbiotic marine protistan plankton.
