HOLOCENE OSTRACODE ASSEMBLAGES FROM THE CONTINENTAL SHELF AND SLOPE OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

Recent ostracodes of the eastern Mediterranean continental slope were, until now, poorly known. During the last decade many cores were sampled from the shelf, slope, and slope-walls of the Akhziv canyons of the northern Israeli part of the Levantine Basin. The northern Israel-southern Lebanon continental margin is covered by 1 to 2 km thick Pliocene–Quaternary, mostly Nile-derived sediments, deeply incised by a system of fault-controlled submarine canyons. Episodic earthquakes loosened massive amounts of these sediments along the Israeli coast that were then transported toward the west by strong south to north counterclockwise currents. The ostracode assemblages studied herein are dominated by juveniles from water depths between 52-1144 m. More than 200 species of ostracodes were identified based on samples ranging up to a few thousand specimens. Certain deep water species were found in our cores that were also recorded in upper bathyal depths of the western Mediterranean. Very rare specimens belonging to the genus Havanardia, which until now have been reported only from reef habitats in the tropics, suggest that a relict crevicular fauna may have existed off the northern Israel shore during Miocene-Pliocene times. Fresh and brackish water ostracodes (Cyprideis and similar forms) transported from the Nile delta are consistently present in low numbers. The range of the ages of the assemblages is estimated to be 0 to 3000 years based on sedimentation rates. Only one species of Krithe was found in large quantities along the core at a depth of 510 m. The common to abundant ostracodes belong to the following genera: Loxoconcha, Hemicythere, Semicytherura, Aurila, Pontocypris, Xestoleberis, Bairdia, Parakrithe, Echinocythereis, Urocythereis, Verrucocythere, Pontocythere, Cistacythere, Paradoxostoma, Polycope, Costa, Basslerites, Buntonia and Pseudopsammocythere.