Late-holocene foraminifera from the SE Levantine Basin

A reconstruction of the foraminiferal record of the past 3500 years in the SE Levantine Basin is presented. The planktic assemblages are of low diversity and dominated by spinose epi-pelagic and shallow meso-pelagic species, most of them symbiont-bearing, accompanied by lesser amounts of deeper dwelling non-spinose and symbiontbarren species. Benthic assemblages are dominated by endobenthic or potentially endobenthic, food-dependent opportunistic species able to withstand hypoxia in muddy sediments. The foraminiferal record shows two partially overlapping sequences of events. The first can be discerned by cycles in the frequency of Globigerina sacculifer and reflects ecological conditions of the upper waters above the pycnocline. The second sequence comprises changes in the deep planktic species and endobenthic foraminifera. These two groups are relatively rare before 1700 y BP and increase in abundance after this date.