New organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts from recent sediments of central Asian seas

Recent to sub-recent sediments from the Caspian Sea, the Kara-Bogaz-Gol Bay, the Enseli lake and the Aral Sea contain the new organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts Caspidinium, Caspidinium rugosum and Impagidinium caspienense. Caspidinium rugosum has S-type paratabulation, dextral torsion and low relief intratabular ornamentation. Impagidinium caspienense has low intratabular suturo-cavate relief, parasutural septa irregular in height and a high septum at the junction of paraplate 1'''' and the sulcus. The accompanying species consist of Spiniferites cruciformis, Lingulodinium machaerophorum, Pyxidinopsis psilata, cysts of Pentapharsodinium dalei and Brigantedinium spp. Spiniferites cruciformis varies from specimens with a cruciform body with a well-developed postero-lateral membranous flange to specimens with a pear-shaped body, reduced processes and no flange. Sea-surface data from these Central Asian seas suggests that the two new taxa Caspidinium rugosum and Impagidinium caspienense are probably related to low salinity conditions (12-13)

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)

River inflow and salinity changes in the Caspian Sea during the last 5500 years

Pollen, spores and dinoflagellate cysts have been analysed on three sediment cores (1.8–1.4 m-long) taken from the south and middle basins of the Caspian Sea. A chronology available for one of the cores is based on calibrated radiocarbon dates (ca 5.5–0.8 cal. ka BP). The pollen and spores assemblages indicate fluctuations between steppe and desert. In addition there are some outstanding zones with a bias introduced by strong river inflow. The dinocyst assemblages change between slightly brackish (abundance of Pyxidinopsis psilata and Spiniferites cruciformis) and more brackish (dominance of Impagidinium caspienense) conditions. During the second part of the Holocene, important flow modifications of the Uzboy River and the Volga River as well as salinity changes of the Caspian Sea, causing sea-level fluctuations, have been reconstructed. A major change is suggested at ca 4 cal. ka BP with the end of a high level phase in the south basin. Amongst other hypotheses, this could be caused by the end of a late and abundant flow of the Uzboy River (now defunct), carrying to the Caspian Sea either meltwater from higher latitudes or water from the Amu-Daria. A similar, later clear phase of water inflow has also been observed from 2.1 to 1.7 cal. ka BP in the south basin and probably also in the north of the middle basin

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

Millennium-long summer temperature variations in the European Alps as reconstructed from tree rings

This paper presents a reconstruction of the summer temperatures over the Greater Alpine Region (44.05A degrees-47.41A degrees N, 6.43A degrees-13A degrees E) during the last millennium based on a network of 38 multi-centennial larch and stone pine chronologies. Tree ring series are standardized using an Adaptative Regional Growth Curve, which attempts to remove the age effect from the low frequency variations in the series. The proxies are calibrated using the June to August mean temperatures from the HISTALP high-elevation temperature time series spanning the 1818-2003. The method combines an analogue technique, which is able to extend the too short tree-ring series, an artificial neural network technique for an optimal non-linear calibration including a bootstrap technique for calculating error assessment on the reconstruction. About 50% of the temperature variance is reconstructed. Low-elevation instrumental data back to 1760 compared to their instrumental target data reveal divergence between (warmer) early instrumental measurements and (colder) proxy estimates. The proxy record indicates cool conditions, from the mid-11th century to the mid-12th century, related to the Oort solar minimum followed by a short Medieval Warm Period (1200-1420). The Little Ice Age (1420-1830) appears particularly cold between 1420 and 1820 with summers that are 0.8 A degrees C cooler than the 1901-2000 period. The new record suggests that the persistency of the late 20th century warming trend is unprecedented. It also reveals significant similarities with other alpine reconstructions

Using lake sediment cores to improve records of volcanism at Aluto volcano in the main Ethiopian rift

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The Lake CHAd Deep DRILLing project (CHADRILL) - targeting ~ 10 million years of environmental and climate change in Africa

At present, Lake Chad ( ~13°0 N, ~14° E) is a shallow freshwater lake located in the Sahel/Sahara region of central northern Africa. The lake is primarily fed by the Chari-Logone river system draining a ~600 000 km2 watershed in tropical Africa. Discharge is strongly controlled by the annual passage of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) and monsoon circulation leading to a peak in rainfall during boreal summer. During recent decades, a large number of studies have been carried out in the Lake Chad Basin (LCB). They have mostly focused on a patchwork of exposed lake sediments and outcrops once inhabited by early hominids. A dataset generated from a 673m long geotechnical borehole drilled in 1973, along with outcrop and seismic reflection studies, reveal several hundred metres of Miocene-Pleistocene lacustrine deposits. CHADRILL aims to recover a sedimentary core spanning the Miocene-Pleistocene sediment succession of Lake Chad through deep drilling. This record will provide significant insights into the modulation of orbitally forced changes in northern African hydroclimate under different climate boundary conditions such as high CO2 and absence of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. These investigations will also help unravel both the age and the origin of the lake and its current desert surrounding. The LCB is very rich in early hominid fossils (Australopithecus bahrelghazali; Sahelanthropus tchadensis) of Late Miocene age. Thus, retrieving a sediment core from this basin will provide the most continuous climatic and environmental record with which to compare hominid migrations across northern Africa and has major implications for understanding human evolution. Furthermore, due to its dramatic and episodically changing water levels and associated depositional modes, Lake Chad's sediments resemble maybe an analogue for lake systems that were once present on Mars. Consequently, the study of the subsurface biosphere contained in these sediments has the potential to shed light on microbial biodiversity present in this type of depositional environment. We propose to drill a total of ~1800m of poorly to semi-consolidated lacustrine, fluvial, and eolian sediments down to bedrock at a single on-shore site close to the shoreline of present-day Lake Chad. We propose to locate our drilling operations on-shore close to the site where the geotechnical Bol borehole (13°280 N, 14°440 E) was drilled in 1973. This is for two main reasons: (1) nowhere else in the Chad Basin do we have such detailed information about the lithologies to be drilled; and (2) the Bol site is close to the depocentre of the Chad Basin and therefore likely to provide the stratigraphically most continuous sequence

Focus sur la fin de la période humide africaine en Éthiopie centrale (5,5 ka BP) par l'analyse détaillée de diatomées fossiles

International audienceThe termination of the African Humid Period in northern Africa has been described as abrupt, occurring within centuries, as well as gradual, in response to incremental decreases in summer insolation. This study examined the rapidity of the change in diatom assemblages over the period from 6.5 to 4.5 cal ka BP, in a core studied previously at a coarser resolution. This transition was characterized by high variability of assemblages, which could be related, in part, to changes in water conductivity, and potentially enhanced by a site-specific hydrological threshold or ecological salinity threshold. We hypothesize that the variations in diatom assemblages reflect climate fluctuations, which may have been an early warning signal of an impending climate regime shift

Paléolacs et paléoclimats aux pourtours de l'océan Indien occidental depuis 25 ka BP

Plusieurs enregistrements lacustres de régions tropicales des deux hémisphères (Tibet, Ethiopie, Tanganyika, Madagascar) illustrent la spécificité des réponses régionales au changement des facteurs forçants du climat. Après avoir rappelé la méthodologie et les techniques utilisées, on résume les faits recensés dans les quatre régions. Les variations hydroclimatiques s'expliquent en partie par le facteur insolation. Les sites considérés enregistrent tous un déficit hydrologique annuel moyen pendant le Dernier Maximum Glaciaire, fait attendu des changements des paramètres orbitaux en hémisphère nord, et attribuable aux conditions thermiques glaciaires qui régissent la température de surface des océans et la teneur de l'atmosphère en vapeur d'eau en hémisphère sud. D'autres causes sont à rechercher pour rendre compte des variations post-glaciaires à très court terme affectant de larges domaines géographiques. (Résumé d'auteur