Environmental and Climate Dynamics During the Last Two Glacial Terminations and Interglacials in the Black Sea/Northern Anatolian Region - Integrated Analysis of Interglacial Climate Dynamics (INTERDYNAMIC) - page 115

Environmental and Climate Dynamics
During the Last Two Glacial Terminations
and Interglacials in the Black
Sea/Northern Anatolian Region

Helge W. Arz, Lyudmila S. Shumilovskikh, Antje Wegwerth,
Dominik Fleitmann and Hermann Behling

Abstract This study provides the first detailed multi-proxy paleoenvironmental

reconstructions of changes in the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems during the
Holocene, Eemian and the last two glacial/interglacial transitions (Terminations I
and II) by studying sediment cores from the southeastern Black Sea and stalagmite
studies from Sofular Cave in northwestern Anatolia. The terrestrial proxies docu-
ment gradual changes from late glacial cold/arid conditions in northern Anatolia,
dominated by steppe vegetation, to warm/humid forest dominated landscapes
characteristic for interglacial periods. The Holocene and Eemian, however, devel-
oped differently, with warmer and moister conditions prevailing during the Eemian.
Major

fluctuations in the hydrological state of the Black Sea are closely linked to
changes of terrestrial environments. Disrupted by large melt water pulses from the
disintegrating Fennoscandian Ice Sheet, the limnic glacial Black Sea environment
becomes more productive during the postglacial warming. Global sea-level rise

fl

finally reconnects the hydrological increasingly active Black Sea basin with the
Mediterranean Sea leading to the development of marine, for the Eemian even fully
marine, conditions with a strati

ed water column and sapropelic sedimentation.

Keywords Black sea Eemian Holocene Glacial-interglacial transitions

Paleoenvironment Paleoclimatology Palynology Geochemistry