Marine and environmental studies

Paleoceanography of the Black Sea reconstructs how this semi-enclosed basin transformed from a freshwater glacial lake into a marine environment over the last several thousand years, tracing the cascading effects of sea level rise as Atlantic waters spilled through the Bosphorus from the Mediterranean. By analyzing sediment cores, isotopic records, and stratigraphic sequences, researchers piece together the timing and pace of these transitions and their broader influence on regional climate, ecosystems, and even early human settlement around the basin's shores. The Black Sea's intermittent connectivity with both the Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea makes it an unusually sensitive recorder of Holocene environmental change, where small shifts in global sea level or regional hydrology left measurable signatures in the sediment. Active debates center on the precise timing and abruptness of the marine transgression, the degree to which it drove rapid ecological reorganization, and how sedimentation patterns reflect the interplay between glacial meltwater pulses and tectonic influences on basin geometry.

Works

142,424

Total citations

732,795

Keywords

Black SeaHolocenepaleoceanographysea levelMediterraneanCaspian Sea