Journal of Sustainability Science and Management Volume 13 Number 5, 2018 ISSN: 1823-8556 © Penerbit UMT CURRENT STATUS OF MODERN FORAMINIFERAL RESEARCH IN PENINSULAR AND EAST MALAYSIA FATIN IZZATI MINHAT 1,2* , MOHD LOKMAN HUSAIN 2 , BEHARA SATYANARAYANA 2 , ABDULLAH SULAIMAN 3 AND SANATUL SALWA HASAN 4 1 School of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia. 2 Institute of Oceanography and Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Nerus, Terengganu, Malaysia. 3 Department of Mineral and Geoscience Malaysia, Technical Service Division, Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah, 31400, Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. 4 Petroleum Resource Exploration Malaysia Petroleum Management, PETRONAS, Level 16, Tower 1, PETRONAS Twin Towers Kuala Lumpur City Centre, 50088 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. *Corresponding author: fatinminhat@umt.edu.my Abstract: Many studies have successfully utilised modern foraminiferal distribution as indicators of pollution and proxies of paleoecological, paleoclimatological and sea-level reconstructions. In spite of growing interests in this unicellular organism, certain countries still lack the data of modern foraminifera. Within the last 50 years, there have been less than twenty publications of modern foraminifera in Malaysia. This paper reviews previous research, summarises the status of ongoing research, identifes research gaps and suggests directions for future research of modern foraminifera in Malaysia. Several signifcant grey literatures are also mentioned in this review. Most of the publications concentrated on the ecology with very few attempts made for application of modern foraminifera (e.g. sea-level reconstruction and pollution monitoring). KEYWORDS: Foraminifera, tropical waters, South China Sea, bioindicator, micropaleontology Introduction Benthic foraminifera occupy all marine habitats, including marginal environments (e.g. lagoons, coastal lakes, estuaries, mangroves and salt marshes), coastal waters and deep sea (Scott et al., 2001; Sen Gupta, 2003). Despite their widespread distribution, foraminifera are sensitive to environmental gradients and require specifc ecological requirements for their distribution (Scott et al., 2001; Fontanier et al., 2002; Murray, 2006). The presence of test on foraminifera allows fossilisation which at the same time translates the environmental condition of which the assemblage was found at that particular time. Hence foraminifera are good ecological indicators in various marine and transitional marine environments (Alve, 1995; Culver & Buzas, 2003; Murray, 2006). Ecological work on foraminifera started in 1935 by Rhumber (Murray, 2006). Research in foraminiferal ecology have been intensifed ever since due to their ability in providing clues to the understanding of geological changes in the past (Sen Gupta, 2003). Distribution of foraminifera in relation to the elevation of mangroves and salt marshes make them useful indicators of sea- level reconstruction (Scott et al., 2001; Horton & Edwards, 2006). Distinct requirements in the distribution of symbiont-bearing, agglutinated and stress tolerant taxa make foraminifera as potential indicators of reef monitoring (Hallock et al., 2003; Carnahan, 2005; Hallock, 2012). Despite the intense studies and publications of foraminifera elsewhere, Malaysia has only limited numbers of published literature. Many of the earliest studies of foraminifera in Malaysia have focused on fossil foraminifera and their application in oil and gas exploration. In the late 70s, several studies have utilised the foraminfera microfacies to determine the age of limestone outcrops (Coo & Smit, 1975; Grazdzicki & Smit, 1977; Whittaker & Hodgkinson, 1979). Meanwhile in the late 90s, many of the published manuscripts were on fossil planktonic forams (Jasin & Ahmad, 1995; Jasin et al., 1995; Jasin, 2002). The studies on recent benthic foraminifera