The Foraminifera constitute the most diverse group of shelled microorganisms in modern seas. This book, designed as an unusually wide-ranging, authoritative, graduate text, deals with the systematics, cell biology, chamber construction, biogeography, ecology, shell geochemistry, and taphonomy of these fascinating protists. The chapter authors are recognized experts in their fields. The main theme concerns large-scale and small-scale patterns of species distributions and the environmental processes that affect these patterns.Critical first principles, whether derived from biology, chemistry, or geology, are carefully explained. Apart from meeting the requirements of courses in foraminiferal ecology, the book will serve well as the major reference in a general course on Foraminifera or one on foraminiferal paleoecology. It will be of great value to graduate students, and also to professionals who are interested in using the sedimentary record of foraminiferal species to answer environmental, paleoenvironmental, or paleoceanographical questions.