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SHALLOW AND DEEP MARINE OSTRACOD ASSEMBLAGES FROM NW BLACK SEA

Andrei Briceag

Abstract

The Black Sea is the largest marine anoxic basin in the world, connected with the Mediterranean through the Bosporus Strait, Marmara Sea and Dardanelles Strait. During global ocean low-stands, the Black Sea basin was isolated from the Mediterranean evolving as a fresh-brackish giant water body. In the Late Pliocene ? Pleistocene times, the Black Sea experienced periodic influxes of water from the Caspian Sea through the Manych Corridor. These hydrological changes that occurred in the Black Sea basin had greatly influenced the environmental conditions, and thus the benthic organisms. In this study, the abundance and distribution pattern of Ponto-Caspian and Mediterranean ostracod taxa were documented from six cores collected from the NW Black Sea. From the Holocene to the Present, small changes took place in the composition of the ostracod assemblages in the studied areas. In the shallow setting of the inner shelf, there is a mix of Ponto-Caspian and Mediterranean ostracod species that adapted and tolerated low salinities. In the deeper parts of the NW Black Sea shelf, the ostracod assemblage is dominated and almost completely replaced by Mediterranean ostracod species. On the shelf edge and on the slope, the cored sediments contain Ponto-Caspian ostracods that can be traced to the period when the Black Sea was isolated from the Mediterranean.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2019/1.1/s01.063

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