Paralic Environments provide researchers with tons of samples simply because they are very easy to locate (along beaches/in marshes) and many foraminifera tests preserve and accumulate in these regions due to turbidity currents.

    The principle characteristic of paralic environments is they occur at transition zones between marine and continental realms.  Paralic environments include: estuaries, coastal lagoons, marshes, shallow low tide zones, and coastal zones vulnerable to fresh water input.

    Several parameters that effect the ecology of these systems are: climate zones, horizontal salinity distribution, mixing of fresh and marine waters, the energy of wave and wind forced currents and the nature of bottom soils.  Anthropogenic (man-made) contaminants also effects the ecology of these systems.