State-of-the-Art

Abstract

AbstractThe history of research on Ponto-Caspian Quaternary foraminifera at the end of the nineteenth century to the present is introduced. The earliest report from the Crimean region was by Pereialsvtseva (Novorossiysk.ob-va yestestvoisp 10(2):79–114 (in Russian), 1886), who noted nine species. At the very beginning of the twentieth century, Zernov (Yezhegodnik zool. muzeya AN, Sankt Petresburg 13(4):28–35 (in Russian), 1906) wrote that foraminifera are scarce in the Black Sea. In contrast, Dolgoplskaya and Pauli (Trudy Karadagskoy nauchnoy stantsii imeni T.I. Vyazemskogo 4:23–48 (in Russian), 1931) found foraminifera to be abundant and contribute a significant proportion of recent benthic assemblages. Research carried out in the Black Sea, the Kerch Strait, and the Sea of Azov, as well as near the Bosphorus outlet, was conducted by researchers from the USSR, Bulgaria, Romania, and Georgia. The first data on Caspian foraminifera were presented by Ehrenberg in 1873, who reported 23 species. The earliest observations from the Aral Sea found only two species. Intensive study of taxonomy, quantitative distribution, and ecology of live (Rose Bengal stained) foraminifera in the Caspian and Aral Seas and their comparison with recent foraminifera from other basins was carried out by Mayer (Vertikal’noye raspredeleniye foraminifer v Kaspiyskom more. In: Maev YeG (ed) Kompleksnye issledovaniya Kaspiyskogo morya 6, pp 101–107 (in Russian), 1974a, Foraminifery Kaspiyskogo i Aral’skogo morey (Foraminifera of the Caspian and Aral seas). Avtoref. Dis. kand. biol. Nauk. Moscow State University, 24 pp (in Russian), 1979b).In addition to, and often in collaboration with, a variety of other researchers working in the region, the author has carried out more than 50 years of research on the taxonomy, ecology/paleoecology, paleogeography, and biostratigraphy of Ponto-Caspian benthic foraminifera. This chapter introduces extensive exploration of the northwestern Black Sea, along the Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Caucasian shelves, as well as the northern exit of the Bosphorus Strait, the Sea of Azov, the Caspian Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea. Fossil assemblages from numerous Pleistocene stratotypes were studied in the coastal zone of the Ponto-Caspian region. The application of benthic foraminifera to reconstruction of sea-level change and coastline migration in regard to the Great Flood Hypotheses in the Black Sea was also investigated. Most recently, the focus has been on the use of benthic foraminifera and other meiobenthic organisms (nematodes, ostracods) to contour reservoirs of methane stored under the seabed.Altogether, 173 benthic and 7 planktonic species and subspecies (i.e., lower taxa) have been recorded, with 18 previously reported species not found. Thirty lower taxa belong to agglutinated foraminifera; the rest are calcareous. A vast majority of them are described, illustrated, and supplemented by the data on biostratigraphy and paleoecology in subsequent chapters.KeywordsPonto-CaspianQuaternaryBenthic foraminiferaHistory of study