| Title | Quantitative estimation of Holocene surface salinity variation in the Black Sea using dinoflagellate cyst process length |
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| Author | Mertens, K N; Bradley, L R; Takano, Y; Mudie, P J; Marret, F; Aksu, A E; Hiscott, R N; Verleye, T J; Mousing, E A; Smyrnova, L L; Bagheri, S; Mansor, M; Pospelova, V; Matsuoka, K |
| Source | Quaternary Science Reviews vol. 39, 2012 p. 45-59, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2012.01.026 |
| Year | 2012 |
| Alt Series | Natural Resources Canada, Contribution Series 20183077 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV |
| Document | serial |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | paper; on-line; digital |
| File format | pdf |
| Abstract | Reconstruction of salinity in the Holocene Black Sea has been an ongoing debate over the past four decades. Here we calibrate summer surface water salinity in the Black Sea, Sea of Azov and Caspian Sea
with the process length of the dinoflagellate cyst Lingulodinium machaerophorum. We then apply this calibration to make a regional reconstruction of paleosalinity in the Black Sea, calculated by averaging out process length variation observed at four
core sites from the Black Sea with high sedimentation rates and dated by multiple mollusk shell ages. Results show a very gradual change of salinity from ?14 ± 0.91 psu around 9.9 cal ka BP to a minimum ?12.3 ± 0.91 psu around 8.5 cal ka BP, reaching
current salinities of ?17.1 ± 0.91 psu around 4.1 cal ka BP. The resolution of our sampling is about 250 years, and it fails to reveal a catastrophic salinization event at ?9.14 cal ka BP advocated by other researchers. The dinoflagellate cyst
salinity-proxy does not record large Holocene salinity fluctuations, and after early Holocene freshening, it shows correspondence to the regional sea-level curve of Brückner et al. (2010) derived from Balabanov (2007). |
| GEOSCAN ID | 312921 |
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