Why write another book on foraminiferal ecology when I have already previously written two (1973, 1991)? Writing those was stimulating because it brought together all the information currently available making it possible to see where progress had been made and where there were still gaps in knowledge. The same philosophy applies to this book. But the simple answer is that a vast amount of literature has appeared since 1991 and ideas have changed. Also, I know that my previous books are cited much more often than any of my papers. Two events encouraged me to undertake this major task. The 1991 book went out of print in the late 1990s but there continues to be a demand for it so the publishers re-introduced it in 2002 as a ‘print-on-demand’ edition. Also, I was invited to give a keynote lecture at the Forams 2002 meeting in Perth and while writing that the need for a new book became glaringly obvious. Another factor is that my circumstances have changed. I started research on foraminiferal ecology in 1959 and became an academic in 1962 so for 41 years research was carried alongside teaching ever increasing numbers of students, administration (including being head of a geology department for 14 years, and an exponential increase in bureaucracy over the last decade) and serving the scientific community on the councils of scientific societies and as editor. I started to write this book in 2003 during my final year of employment.