Quaternary benthic foraminifera from the central Red Sea

The Quaternary paleoceanography of the Red Sea was reconstructed based on various planktonic microfossil assemblages, however until recently little is known about the impact of the Quaternary climate changes on the deep-sea environments of the Red Sea. Consequently, it is still not known to what extent the paleo-productivity patterns reconstructed for the surface waters of the central Red Sea are reflected by the deep-sea benthic foraminifera, which are generally excellent tracers of the deep-sea environments.
The main goal of the proposed project is the reconstruction of the deep-water properties through the study of the deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblages recovered from the central Red Sea. I would like to infer how these assembalges reflect the productivity and salinity changes on glacial-interglacial time-scales in the climatically sensitive setting of the central Red Sea. Therefore, I will use the samples of core Geo-Tü KL9, which were previously investigated for the planktonic foraminiferal assemblages, to test in what extent the Monsoon-driven paleo-productivity patters reconstructed from planktonic foraminifera are reflected by benthic assemblages. If the benthic foraminiferal assemblages allow robust paleo-productivity reconstructions across intervals where nuisance variables in the surface waters overprint the productivity-related signal in planktonic assemblages, the data derived from benthic foraminifera will be used to determine the sea-level thresholds beyond which the monsoon-driven circulation does not affect productivity in the Red Sea. The secondary target of my proposal is to carry out a thorough taxonomic investigation of deep-sea benthic foraminifera in the studied core in order create a comprehensive taxonomical dataset that will facilitate routine and repeatable applications of the developed proxies.

Silye, L, Siccha, M., Kučera, M., 2014. Late Quaternary paleoceanography of the central Red Sea based on benthic foraminiferal assemblages. In: Program Foraminifera and Nonnofossil Groups Joint Meeting 2014, Foraminifera and nannofossils trough time; qualification and quantification, 22-25 June, 2014, Texel, The Netherlands, p. 40.

Silye, L, Kučera, M., 2014. Quaternary environmental changes reflected by central Red Sea deep-water benthic foraminifera. In: Marchant, M. & Hromic, T. (eds.), International Symposium on Foraminifera, Forams 2014, Chile, 19-24 January 2014. Grzybowski Foundation Special Publication 20, p. 108.