TY - JOUR
T1 - Foraminifera of the Faneromeni section (Crete, Greece) reflect the palaeoenvironmental development towards the Messinian salinity crisis
AU - Lyu, Jing
AU - Kouwenhoven, Tanja J.
AU - Calieri, Roberta
AU - Lourens, Lucas J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Gerrit van ?t Veld and Geert Ittmann? prepared the benthos samples. Ronald Harting is thanked for his help with picking benthos in the sapropel samples. Two anonymous referees and the Editor are thanked for critical reading and constructive comments. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2022/4
Y1 - 2022/4
N2 - A severe phase of disturbance around 7.17 Ma initiated an ongoing development towards the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) of the Mediterranean. We present foraminiferal data from the Faneromeni section on Crete to understand how the astronomical cyclicity and the restriction phase starting at 7.17 Ma were reflected in a succession that was deposited on the continental shelf and characterized by a precession-dominated alternation of organic-enriched grey marls and sapropels and light-coloured homogeneous marls. Benthic and planktic abundance data show that the foraminifera are closely associated with precessional cyclicity. Similar as in other Mediterranean sections, the 7.17 Ma shift in benthic assemblages is sedimentologically expressed by the occurrence of the first distinct sapropel (Faneromeni cycle F18). At this level, throughout the Mediterranean a group of open marine benthic species intolerant to oxygen stress abruptly decreased in abundance with several species disappearing at or shortly after 7.17 Ma. These species were replaced by species indicating increasing stress, implying decreasing oxygen content of the bottom waters after 7.17 Ma. The data further suggests that sapropelic sediments dominated by Bolivina dilatata/spathulata were deposited under hypoxic conditions, rather than under continuous organic flux. Our data reflects a second step in the restriction of the Mediterranean between 6.8 and 6.7 Ma, indicated by decreasing benthic diversity and increasing abundances of planktic and benthic taxa considered tolerant of hypersalinity. An increase in water salinity has been suggested before, and if true, appears to have affected the bottom waters and the surface waters around the same time.
AB - A severe phase of disturbance around 7.17 Ma initiated an ongoing development towards the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC) of the Mediterranean. We present foraminiferal data from the Faneromeni section on Crete to understand how the astronomical cyclicity and the restriction phase starting at 7.17 Ma were reflected in a succession that was deposited on the continental shelf and characterized by a precession-dominated alternation of organic-enriched grey marls and sapropels and light-coloured homogeneous marls. Benthic and planktic abundance data show that the foraminifera are closely associated with precessional cyclicity. Similar as in other Mediterranean sections, the 7.17 Ma shift in benthic assemblages is sedimentologically expressed by the occurrence of the first distinct sapropel (Faneromeni cycle F18). At this level, throughout the Mediterranean a group of open marine benthic species intolerant to oxygen stress abruptly decreased in abundance with several species disappearing at or shortly after 7.17 Ma. These species were replaced by species indicating increasing stress, implying decreasing oxygen content of the bottom waters after 7.17 Ma. The data further suggests that sapropelic sediments dominated by Bolivina dilatata/spathulata were deposited under hypoxic conditions, rather than under continuous organic flux. Our data reflects a second step in the restriction of the Mediterranean between 6.8 and 6.7 Ma, indicated by decreasing benthic diversity and increasing abundances of planktic and benthic taxa considered tolerant of hypersalinity. An increase in water salinity has been suggested before, and if true, appears to have affected the bottom waters and the surface waters around the same time.
KW - Benthic and planktic foraminifera
KW - Eastern Mediterranean
KW - Messinian restriction
KW - Palaeoecology
KW - Precessional cyclicity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126763288&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.marmicro.2022.102107
DO - 10.1016/j.marmicro.2022.102107
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85126763288
SN - 0377-8398
VL - 172
SP - 1
EP - 17
JO - Marine Micropaleontology
JF - Marine Micropaleontology
M1 - 102107
ER -