Running Head: Foram Assemblages from Three Substrata Comparison of Foraminiferal Assemblages from Three Kinds of Substrata, Durney Key, West-CentralFlorida, USA

As part of a project that assessed a proposed artificial reef site, this study compared benthic foraminiferal assemblages from three substrata: sediment, natural lime rock and recruitment tiles. The assemblage from sediment samples included 21 foraminiferal species representing 12 genera and was dominated by stress-tolerant taxa, especially Ammonia and Elphidium . Natural lime rock and recruitment tiles yielded 21 foraminiferal species representing 11 genera, which were dominated by miliolids. Intersample variability was characterized by “pulsating patches” as has been previously described forFloridaestuaries. The predominance of stress-tolerant taxa in sediments was consistent with other observations from the site, which indicated that proposed artificial reef structures were not likely to recruit significant coral-reef biota.