Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Late quaternary glacial/interglacial cyclicity models of the Red Sea

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Environmental Earth Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The benthic foraminiferal faunas from samples of two piston cores retrieved along a north–south transect in the Red Sea were studied. The northern core was collected during Meteor cruise M 31/2, while the southern one was collected during the Sonne cruise 121. Benthic foraminiferal faunas from both sites exhibit large variability with respect to density, diversity, species composition and assemblages combined with stable oxygen and carbon isotope records of planktic and benthic foraminifera. One hundered thirty benthic foraminiferal species were identified in the investigated cores. The faunal data set of the northern core was reduced to five assemblages (factors) while the southern one was reduced to four assemblages. All assemblages were ranked according to their ecological significance. Besides, relative abundance of major benthic foraminiferal suborders [Textulariina (agglutinating foraminifera), Miliolina and Rotaliina], in addition to infaunal/epifaunal relative abundance were used as paleoenvironmental proxies allowing the reconstruction of past changes in deep-water salinity, ventilation and organic carbon fluxes at the sea-floor. Four distinct glacial/interglacial cycle during the past 380 Kyr have been recognized in the Red Sea. The identified four cycles reveal deviation in deep-sea ecosystem between the northern and southern Red Sea. In the northern Red Sea salinity fluctuations, productivity and deep-water ventilation and formation had the major impact on benthic foraminiferal pattern corresponding to glacial/interglacial cycles and glacio-eustatic sea level changes coupled with the impact of Mediterranean climate regime. On the otherhand, in the southern Red Sea region the oscillation trend of benthic foraminiferal pattern within the glacials and interglacials stages indicates a high frequency environmental alternation. This alternation is consistent with the extent of NE monsoonal wind that controls the intensity and extension of the productivity, which in turn determine organic matter fluxes and oxygen level at the sea floor.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+
from $39.99 /Month
  • Starting from 10 chapters or articles per month
  • Access and download chapters and articles from more than 300k books and 2,500 journals
  • Cancel anytime
View plans

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Explore related subjects

Discover the latest articles and news from researchers in related subjects, suggested using machine learning.

References

  • Abu-Zied RH, Basaham AS, El Sayed MA (2013) Effect of municipal wastewaters on bottom sediment geochemistry and benthic foraminifera of two Red Sea coastal inlets, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Environ Earth Sci 68:451–469. doi:10.1007/s12665-012-1751-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Adamson DA, Gasse F, Street FA, Williams MAJ (1980) Late Quaternary history of the Nile. Nature 288:50–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Almogi-Labin A, Hemleben Ch, Meischner D, Erlenkeuser H (1991) Paleoenvironmental events during the last 13,000 years in the central Red Sea as recorded by pteropoda. Paleoceanography 6:83–98

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Almogi-Labin A, Hemleben Ch, Meischner D, Erlenkeuser H (1996) Response of Red Sea deep-water agglutinated foraminifera to water-mass changes during the Late Quaternary. Mar Micropaleontol 28:283–297

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Almogi-Labin A, Schmiedl G, Hemleben Ch, Siman-Tov R, Segl M, Meischner D (2000) The influence of the NE winter monsoon on productivity changes in the Gulf of Aden, NW Arabian Sea, during the last 530 Ka as recorded by foraminifera. Mar Micropaleontol 40:295–319

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altenbach AV, Sarnthein M (1989) Productivity record in benthic foraminifera. In: Berger WH, Smetacek VS, Wefer G (eds) Productivity of the ocean: present and past. Life Sci Res Rep 44, pp 255–269

  • Badawi A, Schmiedl G, Hemleben C (2005) Impact of late Quaternary environmental changes on deep-sea benthic foraminiferal faunas of the Red Sea. Mar Micropaleontol 58(1):13–30

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger A, Loutre MF (1991a) Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years. Quat Sci Rev 19:297–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger A, Loutre MF (1991b) Insolation values for the climate of the last 10 million years. Quat Sci Rev 19:297–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berger WH, Herguera JC, Lange CB, Schneider R (1994) Paleoproductivity flux proxies versus nutrient proxies and other problems concerning the Quaternary productivity record. In: Zahn R, Pedersen TF, Kaminski MA, Labeyrie L (eds) Carbon cycling in the glacial ocean: constraints on the ocean’s role in global change. NATO ASI Series. I, 17, pp 385–412

  • Bickert T, Wefer G (1996) Late Quaternary deep water circulation in the western equatorial Atlantic. In: Wefer G, Berger WH, Siedler G, Webb DJ (eds) The South Atlantic, present and past circulation. Springer, Berlin, pp 599–620

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickert T, Wefer G (1999) South Atlantic and benthic foraminifer δ13C deviation: implications for reconstructing the late Quaternary deep-water circulation. Deep Sea Res II 46:437–452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Birch H, Coxall H, Pearson P, Kroon D, O’Regan M (2013) Planktonic foraminifera stable isotopes and water column structure: Disentangling ecological signals. Mar Micropaleontol 1–19 (In Press)

  • Bower AS, Furey HH (2012) Mesoscale eddies in the Gulf of Aden and their impact on the spreading of Red Sea Outflow Water. Prog Oceanogr 96:14–39

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brewer DJ (1992) Incremental growth structures in Nile fish and molluscs from archaeological sites as indicators of Holocene environmental change in Egypt. Holocene 2(1):30–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Buzas MA, Gibson TG (1969) Species diversity: benthonic foraminifera in the western North Atlantic. Science 163:72–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cember RP (1988) On the sources, formation and circulation of Red Sea deep water. J Geophys Res 93(C7):8175–8191

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohmap Members (1988) Climatic change of the last 18,000 years: observations and model simulations. Science 241:1043–1052

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corliss BH (1985) Microhabitats of benthic foraminifera within deep-sea sediments. Nature 314:435–438

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Corliss BH, Emerson S (1990) Distribution of Rose Bengal stained deep-sea benthic foraminifera from the Nova Scotian continental margin and Gulf of Maine. Deep Sea Res 37:381–400

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Den Dulk M, Reichart G, Memon J, Roelofs EMP, Zachariasse WJ, Van der Zwaan GJ (1998) Benthic foraminiferal response to variations in surface water productivity and oxygenation in the northern Arabian Sea. Mar Micropaleontol 35:43–66

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Den Dulk M, Reichart GJ, Heyst S, Zachariasse WJ, Van der Zwaan GJ (2000) Benthic foraminifera as proxies of organic matter flux and bottom water oxygenation? A case from the northern Arabian Sea. Paleoceanogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol 161:337–359

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deuser WG, Ross EH, Waterman LS (1976) Glacial and pluvial periods: their relationship revealed by Pleistocene sediments of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Science 191:1168–1170

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Duplessy JC, Shackleton NJ, Fairbanks RG, Labeyrie L, Oppo D, Kallel N (1988) Deep water source variations during the last climatic cycle and their impact on the global deep water circulation. Paleoceanography 3:343–360

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edelman-Furstenberg Y, Scherbacher M, Hemleben Ch, Almogi-Labin A (2001) Deep-sea benthic foraminifera from the central Red Sea. J Foram Res 31:48–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Edelman-Fürstenberg Y, Almogi-Labin A, Hemleben Ch (2009) Palae-oceanographic evolution of the central Red Sea during the late Holocene. Holocene 19(1):117–127

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fenton M, Geiselhart S, Rohling EJ, Hemleben Ch (2000) Aplanktonic zones in the Red Sea. Mar Micropaleontol 40:277–294

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleitmann D (2007) Holocene ITCZ and Indian monsoon dynamics recorded in stalagmites from Oman and Yemen (Socotra). Quat Sci Rev 26:170–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fontanier C, Jorissen FJ, Licari L, Alexandre A, Anschutz P, Carbonel P (2002) Live benthic foraminiferal faunas from the Bay of Biscay: faunal density, composition and microhabitats. Deep Sea Res 49:751–785

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fontes JC, Gasse F (1991) Paleohydrography in Africa program (PALHADAF): objectives, methods, major results. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 85:191–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gasse F, Ledee V, Masssault M, Fontes JC (1989) Water-level fluctuations of Lake Tanganyika in phase with ocean changes during the last glaciation and deglaciation. Nature 342:57–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geiselhart S (1998) Late Quaternary paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic history of the Red Sea during the last 380.000 years: evidence from stable isotopes and faunal assemblages. Tuebingen Mikropaleontol Mitt 17:87

    Google Scholar 

  • Gooday AJ (1986) Meiofaunal foraminiferans from the bathyl Porcupine Seabight (northeast Atlantic): size structure, standing stock, taxonomic composition, species diversity and vertical distribution in the sediment. Deep Sea Res 33:1345–1373

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gooday AJ (1993) Deep-sea benthic forminiferal species which exploit phytodetritus: characteristic features and controls on distribution. Mar Micropaleontol 22:187–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gooday AJ (1996) Epifaunal and shallow infaunal foraminiferal communities at three abyssal NE Atlantic sites subject to differing phytodetritus imput regimes. Deep Sea Res 143:1395–1421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gooday AJ, Bernhard JM, Levin LA, Suhr SB (2000) Foraminifera in the Arabian Sea oxygen minimum zone and other oxygen-deficient settings: taxonomic composition, diversity, and relation to metazoan faunas. Deep Sea Res II 47:25–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hemleben Ch, Meischner D, Zahn R, Almogi-Labin A, Erlenkeuser H, Hiller B (1996) Three hundred eighty thousand year long stable isotope and faunal record from the Red Sea: influence of global sea level change on hydrography. Paleoceanography 11(2):147–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hermelin JO, Shimmield GB (1990) The importance of the oxygen minimum zone and sediment geochemistry in the distribution of recent benthic foraminifera in the Northwest Indian Ocean. Mar Geol 91:1–29

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Imbrie J, Hays JD, Martinson DG, McIntyre A, Mix AC, Morley JJ, Pisias NG, Prell WL, Shackleton NJ (1984) The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate: Support from a reversed chronology of the marine O18 record. In: Berger A, Imbrie J, Hays J, Kugla G, Satzmann B (eds) Milankovitch and climate. Riedl, Dordrecht, pp 269–305

    Google Scholar 

  • Ivanova EV (1985) Late Quaternary biostratigraphy and paleotemperatures of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden based on planktonic foraminifera and pteropods. Mar Micropaleontol 9:335–364

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorissen FJ (1999) Benthic foraminiferal successions across Late Quaternary Mediterranean sapropels. Mar Geol 153:91–101

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jorissen FJ, De Stigter HC, Widmark JGV (1995) A conceptual model explaining benthic foraminiferal microhabitats. Mar Micropaleontol 26:3–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kutzbach JE (1981) Monsoon climate of the Early Holocene: climate experiment with the earth’s orbital parameters for 9000 years ago. Science 214:59–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Locke SM, Thunell RC (1988) Paleoceanographic record of the last glacial/interglacial cycle in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 64:163–187

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loeblich AR, Tappan H (1988) Foraminiferal genera and their classification-plates. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York 970 pp

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Loubere P (1991) Deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblage response to a surface ocean productivity gradient: a test. Paleoceanography 6:193–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Loubere P (1997) Benthic foraminiferal assemblage formation, organic carbon flux and oxygen concentrations on the outer continental shelf and slope. J Foram Res 27:409

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackensen A, Douglas RG (1989) Down-core distribution of live and dead deep-water benthic foraminifera in box cores from the Weddell Sea and the California continental borderland. Deep Sea Res 36:879–900

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackensen A, Hubberten HW, Bickert T, Fischer G, Fütterer DK (1993) The 13C in benthic foraminiferal tests of Fontbotia wuellerstorfi (Schwager) relative to the 13C of dissolved inorganic carbon in Southern Ocean deep water: implications for glacial ocean circulation models. Paleoceanography 8:587–610

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mackensen A, Grobe H, Hubberten HW, Kuhn G (1994) Benthic foraminiferal assemblages and the δ13C signal in the Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean: Glacial to interglacial contrasts. In: Zahn R, Pedersen TF, Kaminski MA, Labeyrie L (eds) Carbon cycling in the glacial ocean: constraints on the ocean´s role in global change. NATO ASI Series I, pp 105–144

  • Mackensen A, Schmield G, Harloff J, Giese M (1995) Deep-sea foraminifera in the South Atlantic Ocean: ecology and assemblage generation. Micropaleontology 41:242–258

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Masson V, Braconnot P, Jouzel N, De Noblet R, Cheddadi R, Marchal O (2000) Simulation of intense monsoons under glacial conditions. Geophys Res Lett 27:1747–1750

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matthewson AP, Shimmield GB, Kroon D, Fallick AE (1995) A 300 Kyr high-resolution aridity record of the north African continent. Paleoceanography 10(3):677–692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McCorkle DC, Keigwin LD, Corliss BH, Emerson SR (1990) The influence of microhabitats on the carbon isotopic composition of deep-sea benthic foraminifera. Paleoceanography 5(2):161–185

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Melissa AW, Paul BHR, Timothy P (2013) The paleolimnology of Haynes Lake, Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Canada: documenting anthropogenic and climatic disturbances. Environ Earth Sci 68(7):1823–1834

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mercone D, Thomson J, Croudace IW, Siani G, Paterne M, Troelstra S (2000) Duration of S1, the most recent sapropel in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, as indicated by accelerated mass spectrometry radiocarbon and geochemical evidence. Paleoceanography 15:336–347

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mommersteeg HJPM, Loutre MF, Young R, Wijmstra TA, Hooghiemstra H (1995) Orbital forced frequencies in the 975000 year pollen record from Tenagi Philippon (Greece). Clim Dyn 11:4–24

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murray JW (1991) Ecology and palaeoecology of benthic foraminifera. Longman, London 397 pp

    Google Scholar 

  • Paillard D, Labeyrie L, Yiou P (1996) Macintosh program performs

  • Prell WL, Kutzbach JE (1992) Sensitivity of the Indian monsoon to forcing parameters and implications for IST evolution. Nature 360:647–652

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prell WL, Van Campo E (1986) Coherent response of Arabian Sea upwelling and pollen transport to Late Quaternary monsoonal winds. Nature 232:526–528

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rathburn AE, Corliss BH, Tappa KD, Lohmann KC (1996) Comparisons of the ecology and stable isotopic compositions of living (stained) benthic foraminifer from the Sulu and South China Seas. Deep Sea Res 143:1617–1646

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reichelt R, Faure H, Maley J (1992) Die Entwicklung des Klimas im rantropischen Sahara-Sahelbereich Wahrend des Jungquartars-ein Beitrag zur angewandten Klimakunde. Petermanns Geogr Mitt 136:69–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Rohling EJ (1994) Glacial conditions in the Red Sea. Paleoceanography 9(5):653–660

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossignol-Strick M (1983) African monsoons, an immediate climate response to orbital insolation. Nature 304:46–49

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rossignol-Strick M (1985) Mediterranean Quaternary sapropels, an immediate response of the African monsoon to variation of insolation. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 49:237–263

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sarnthein M, Winn K, Duplessy J, Fontugne MR (1988) Global carbon variations of surface ocean productivity in low and mid latitudes: influence on CO2 reservoirs of the deep ocean and atmosphere during the last 21,000 years. Paleoceanography 3(3):361–399

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmiedl G, Hemleben Ch, Keller J, Segl M (1998) Impact of climatic changes on the benthic foraminiferal fauna in the Ionian Sea during the last 330, 000 years. Paleoceanography 13:447–458

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sen Gupta BK, Machain-Castillo ML (1993) Benthic foraminifera in oxygen-poor habitats. Mar Micropaleontol 20:183–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siccha M, Trommer G, Schulz H, Hemleben Ch, Kucera M (2009) Factors controlling the distribution of planktonic foraminifera in the Red Sea and implications for the development of transfer functions. Mar Micropaleontol 72:146–156

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siddall M, Rohling EJ, Almogi-Labin A, Hemleben Ch, Meischner D, Schmelzer I, Smeed DA (2003) Sea-level fluctuations during the last glacial cycle. Nature 423:853–858

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siddall M, Smeed DA, Hemleben Ch, Rohling EJ, Schmelzer I, Peltier WR (2004) Understanding the Red Sea response to sea level. Earth Planet Sci Lett 225:421–434

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smeed DA (2004) Exchange through the Bab el Mandab. Deep Sea Res II 51:455–474

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Woelbroek C, Labeyrie L, Michel E, Duplessy JC, McManus JF, Lambeck K, Balbon E, Labracherie M (2002) Sea-level and deep water temperature changes derived from benthic foraminifera isotopic records. Quat Sci Rev 21:295–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhongwei Y, Petit-Maire N (1994) The last 140 Ka in the Afro-Asian/semi-arid transitional zone. Paleoceanogr Paleoclimatol Paleoecol 110:217–233

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zoran K, Nolan G, Melissa D (2014) Changes in beach gravel lithology caused by anthropogenic activities along the southern coast of Lake Michigan, USA. Environ Earth Sci 71(3):1249–1266

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

Dr. M. Segl is acknowledged for performing the stable isotope measurements at the Department of Geosciences, Bremen University. Appreciations are to Dr. Ch. Hemleben for his critical discussions and support. Many thanks are to Dr. Ahmed E. Rifaat for reviewing the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Al-Anfushi, 21556, Alexandria, Egypt

    Amani Badawi

Authors
  1. Amani Badawi
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amani Badawi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Badawi, A. Late quaternary glacial/interglacial cyclicity models of the Red Sea. Environ Earth Sci 73, 961–977 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3446-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3446-8

Keywords