Paleoenvironmental evolution of the eastern Mediterranean during the Messinian: Constraints from integrated microfossil data of the Pissouri Basin (Cyprus)

Integrated data of calcareous nannofossils, as well as planktonic and benthic foraminifera from the Pissouri Motorway section on Cyprus allow the reconstruction of surface- and bottom-water paleoenvironments of the eastern Mediterranean during the interval preceding the Messinian salinity crisis (MSC). Contrary to deeper-water locations, where benthic foraminifera faunas are suppressed or absent just after the Tortonian–Messinian boundary, sediments deposited at intermediate water depths do contain benthic assemblages. From the earliest Messinian onwards, a development towards increasingly unfavourable paleoenvironments is reflected in the planktonic and benthic microfossil records of the Pissouri section and proceeds with rather discrete time steps that can be correlated to sequences throughout the Mediterranean. Shortly after the Tortonian–Messinian boundary a transition is recorded in the sedimentology and the open marine, deeper-water taxa disappear from the benthic foraminifera assemblages; subsequently, the diversity of all fauna groups diminishes. The changes recorded at species level in both surface-water and sea-floor dwelling taxa suggest decreasing circulation of the bottom waters, associated with changes in the surface waters, most likely due to increasing stratification. From ∼6.73 Ma onwards, our data indicate a prominent change to more restricted conditions and increasing salinity at the sea floor together with intermittently rising surface water salinity. The dominance of oligotypic and monospecific assemblages and the frequent shifts in assemblage compositions of all microfossil groups indicate severely stressed environments after ∼6.4 Ma, probably related to increased salinity. The major changes in paleoenvironmental conditions, including oxygen deprivation due to stagnation and hypersalinity, can be explained by hydrographical changes in the Mediterranean basin, which are probably caused by tectonic movements in the Rif Corridor acting in concert with astronomical cyclicity. Evaluation of the paleodepth proxies indicates that the depth of the Pissouri Basin remained rather constant at ∼300–500 m, with a minimum of 200 m, until deposition of the “barre jaune”, the transitional interval towards the evaporites and that early shallowing to neritic depths, as was proposed before, is highly unlikely.