Stable isotopic composition of Holocene benthic foraminifers from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea: Past changes in productivity and deep water oxygenation

Temporal and regional changes in paleoproductivity and paleoceanography in the eastern Mediterranean Sea during the past 12 kyr were reconstructed on the basis of the stable oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of the epibenthic Planulina ariminensis and the shallow endobenthic Uvigerina mediterranea from three sediment cores of the Aegean Sea (GeoTü SL148, 1094 m water depth; GeoTü SL123, 728 m water depth) and Levantine Basin (GeoTü SL112, 892 m water depth). The end of the Younger Dryas is characterized by high δ18O values, indicating enhanced salinities and low temperatures of deep water masses at all investigated sites. With the onset of the Holocene, δ18O records show a continuous decrease towards the onset of sapropel S1 formation, mainly caused by a freshening and warming of surface waters at deep water formation sites. In the middle and late Holocene, the similarity of δ18O values from the southern Aegean Sea and Levantine Basin suggests the influence of isotopically identical deep water masses. By contrast, slightly higher δ18O values are observed in the northern Aegean Sea, which probably point to lower temperatures of North Aegean deep waters. The epifaunal δ13C records reveal clear changes in sources and residence times of eastern Mediterranean deep waters associated with the period of S1 formation. Available data for the early and late phase of sapropel S1 formation and for the interruption around 8.2 kyr display decreases by 0.5 and 1.5‰, indicating the slow-down of deep water circulation and enhanced riverine input of isotopically light dissolved inorganic carbon from terrestrial sources into the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The decrease in epifaunal δ13C signals is particularly expressed in the southern Aegean Sea and Levantine Basin, while it is less pronounced in the northern Aegean Sea. This points to a strong reduction in deep water exchange rates in the southern areas, but the persistence of local deep water formation in the northern Aegean Sea. The δ13C values of U. mediterranea reveal temporal and regional differences in paleoproductivity during the past 12 kyr, with rather eutrophic and mesotrophic conditions in the North Aegean Sea and southeast Levantine Basin, respectively, while the South Aegean Sea is characterized by rather oligotrophic conditions. After S1 formation, increasing δ13C values reflect a progressive decrease in surface water productivity in the eastern Mediterranean Sea during the middle and late Holocene. In the northern Aegean Sea, this time interval is marked by repetitive changes in organic matter fluxes documented by significant fluctuations in the δ13C signal of U. mediterranea on millennial- to multi-centennial time scales. These fluctuations can be linked to short-term changes in river runoff driven by northern hemisphere climatic variability.