Fauna and flora of drilling and core data from the Iznik Lake: The Marmara and the Black Sea connection

Abstract

The study deals with on the Quaternary connection of the Iznik Lake between the Gemlik Gulf and the Black Sea located in the Marmara Region. The core and drilling data were evaluated. They were collected at two locations and depths from drilling cores and at the three deepest locations of the lake. A total of 510 samples were examined from the lake-bottom cores. Ostracod, mollusc, nannoplankton, ascidian spicule, and diatom assemblages observed at different levels of the drillings were studied. No foraminiferal data were recorded. Molluscan association such as Dreissena bugensis, D. caspia, Monodacna pontica, Clathrocaspia makarovi, Euxinipyrgula milachevitchi, Euxinipyrgula lincta indicate Neoeuxinian age. Amnicythere olivia, A. stepanaitysae, A. striatocostata, Tyrrhenocythere amnicola and Loxoconcha immodulata of the ostracod assemblage, exhibiting Ponto-Caspian origin, were found. In addition, fossil ascidian spicules comprising various species of Bonetia, Micrascidites, Monniotia, and Rigaudia genera were encountered, probably representing Late Pleistocene to Holocene ages. Campylodiscus echeneis, Cocconeis placentula var. lineata Epithemia turgida var. granulata, Epithemia adnata, Nitzschia commutate and N. vermicularis, from the diatom assemblage are genera and species also found in the Iznik Lake and in the Black Sea. Mollusc and ostracod fauna, the Ponto-Caspian origin indicates that the Iznik Lake was connected with the Black Sea and the Marmara Sea in the recent period. Thus, the Ponto-Caspian assemblages indicate the early Neoeuxinian (Surozhian) brackish water inundated the study area.