Late Pleistocene and Holocene palaeoenvironments in and around the middle Caspian basin as reconstructed from a deep-sea core

This article has been made available through Open Access by the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.Late Pleistocene and/or Holocene high-resolution palynological studies are available for the south basin of the Caspian Sea (CS), the world's largest lake. However, the north and middle basins have not been the object of high-resolution palynological reconstructions. This new study presents the pollen, spores and dinoflagellate cysts records obtained from a 10m-long sediment core recovered in the middle basin, which currently has brackish waters and is surrounded by arid and semi-arid vegetation.An age-depth model built based on six radiocarbon dates on ostracod shells indicates that the sequence spans the period from 14.47 to 2.43cal.kaBP. The present palaeoenvironmental study focuses on the top 666cm, or from 12.44 to 2.43cal.kaBP.At the vegetation level, the Younger Dryas is characterised by an open landscape dominated by desert vegetation composed by Amaranthaceae with shrubs and salt-tolerant plants. However, although the Early Holocene is also characterised by desert vegetation, it is enriched in various shrubs such as Ephedra and Calligonum, but tree expansion is not important at the Holocene onset. After a major shift at 8.19cal.kaBP, the Middle Holocene displays now both the character of desert and of steppe, although some trees such as Quercus and Corylus slightly spread. The Late Holocene records steppe vegetation as dominant, with more tree diversity.Regarding the lacustrine signal, the dinocyst assemblage record fluctuates between slightly brackish conditions highlighted by Pyxidinopsis psilata and Spiniferites cruciformis, and more brackish ones - similar to the present day - with the dominance of Impagidinium caspienense. The Late Pleistocene is characterised by low salinities, related to the Khvalynian highstand. From 11.56cal.kaBP, slightly more saline waters are reconstructed with an increase of I.caspienense for a period of 1000 years, which could be attributed to the Mangyshlak lowstand. From 10.55cal.kaBP, low salinity conditions return with remains such as Anabaena and Botryococcus abundant until 8.83cal.kaBP, followed by a slow, progressive decrease of P. psilata and S. cruciformis until 4.11cal.kaBP, which is the main assemblage change at lacustrine scale. Since then, higher salinities, similar to the present one, are reconstructed. Finally, Lingulodinium machaerophorum starts its development only at 2.75cal.kaBP, in the Late Holocene.The present research revealed fundamental differences from previously published sea-level curves, in that a 6000yr-long highstand suggested by low salinities is shown between 10.55 and 4.11cal.kaBP. Amongst other arguments, using a comparison to a similar palynological regard but in the south basin, a N-S salinity gradient that is the reverse of the present one across the CS, suggests that the Amu Darya was flowing in the CS. Hence the CS levels during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene were influenced by a combination of precipitation over the high European latitudes and the indirect influence of the Indian summer monsoon over the Pamirs. © 2014.This study has been conducted within the European Contract INCO-Copernicus “Understanding the Caspian Sea erratic fluctuations” n IC15-CT96-0112. This was funded by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique within the framework of the INSUDYTEC (DYnamique de la Terre et du Climat) Program (France)

Lingulodinium machaerophorum expansion over the last centuries in the Caspian Sea reflects global warming

This article is made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund. Copyright @ Author(s) 2012. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.We analysed dinoflagellate cyst assemblages in four short sediment cores, two of them dated by radionuclides, taken in the south basin of the Caspian Sea. The interpretation of the four sequences is supported by a collection of 27 lagoonal or marine surface sediment samples. A sharp increase in the biomass of the dinocyst occurs after 1967, especially owing to Lingulodinium machaerophorum. Considering nine other cores covering parts or the whole of Holocene, this species started to develop in the Caspian Sea only during the last three millennia. By analysing instrumental data and collating existing reconstructions of sea level changes over the last few millennia, we show that the main forcing of the increase of L. machaerophorum percentages and of the recent dinocyst abundance is global climate change, especially sea surface temperature increase. Sea level fluctuations likely have a minor impact. We argue that the Caspian Sea has entered the Anthropocene

The Ponto-Caspian basin as a final trap for southeastern Scandinavian Ice-Sheet meltwater

This paper provides new data on the evolution of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea from the Last Glacial Maximum until ca. 12 cal kyr BP. We present new analyses (clay mineralogy, grain-size, Nd isotopes and pollen) applied to sediments from the river terraces in the lower Volga, from the middle Caspian Sea and from the western part of the Black Sea. The results show that during the last deglaciation, the Ponto-Caspian basin collected meltwater and fine-grained sediment from the southern margin of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) via the Dniepr and Volga Rivers. It induced the deposition of characteristic red-brownish/chocolate-coloured illite-rich sediments (Red Layers in the Black Sea and Chocolate Clays in the Caspian Sea) that originated from the Baltic Shield area according to Nd data. This general evolution, common to both seas was nevertheless differentiated over time due to the specificities of their catchment areas and due to the movement of the southern margin of the SIS. Our results indicate that in the eastern part of the East European Plain, the meltwater from the SIS margin supplied the Caspian Sea during the deglaciation until ∼13.8 cal kyr BP, and possibly from the LGM. That led to the Early Khvalynian transgressive stage(s) and Chocolate Clays deposition in the now-emerged northern flat part of the Caspian Sea (river terraces in the modern lower Volga) and in its middle basin. In the western part of the East European Plain, our results confirm the release of meltwater from the SIS margin into the Black Sea that occurred between 17.2 and 15.7 cal kyr BP, as previously proposed. Indeed, recent findings concerning the evolution of the southern margin of the SIS and the Black Sea, show that during the last deglaciation, occurred a westward release of meltwater into the North Atlantic (between ca. 20 and 16.7 cal kyr BP), and a southward one into the Black Sea (between 17.2 and 15.7 cal kyr BP). After the Red Layers/Chocolate Clays deposition in both seas and until 12 cal kyr BP, smectite became the dominant clay mineral. The East European Plain is clearly identified as the source for smectite in the Caspian Sea sediments. In the Black Sea, smectite originated either from the East European Plain or from the Danube River catchment. Previous studies consider smectite as being only of Anatolian origin. However, our results highlight both, the European source for smectite and the impact of this source on the depositional environment of the Black Sea during considered period

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