“…Murray, 2006) and present several characteristics that make them powerful bio-indicators of marine environmental characteristics (Schönfeld et al, 2012): (i) high density in marine sediments; (ii) short lifecycles; (iii) occupation of specific ecological niches and microhabitats, including superficial, shallow, and deep infaunal sediment layers (up to 10-20 cm depth). Because of these characteristics, foraminifera have increasingly been used as biotic tools for assessing the quality status of coastal marine environments (Alve et al, 2016;Barras et al, 2014;Belart et al, 2018;Bouchet et al, 2018aBouchet et al, , 2012Fontanier et al, 2009Fontanier et al, , 2020Frontalini and Coccioni, 2008;Jorissen et al, 2022;Laut et al, 2021;Martins et al, 2013Martins et al, , 2015Martins et al, , 2016Murray, 2006;Nesbitt et al, 2015). Moreover, Bouchet et al (2018b) showed that benthic foraminifera can be better bio-indicators than macrofauna as they can be present on a larger spectrum of environmental gradients compared to macrofauna and are generally more sensitive to (and therefore absent in) highly stressed conditions.…”