Late Miocene to Recent Mediterranean Biostratigraphy and Paleoenvironments Based on Calcareous Nannoplankton

Abstract

This chapter focuses on some of the more important biostratigraphic events, as well as on paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic changes in the Mediterranean during the late Miocene to the Recent. At the beginning of the Serravallian (middle Miocene), the Mediterranean lost its function as an east-west seaway connecting the Atlantic with Indo-Pacific anel in effect became a marginal basin of the Atlantic. Paleoenvironmental changes observed in the Mediterranean area (mainly in the western part) are the response to the global paleoclimatic evolution closely related to changes in the northeastern Atlantic. On the basis of nannoplankton assemblages, it is possible to reconstruct the paleoclimatic history of the Mediterranean as influenced by sea-level fluctuations connected with changing influx of Atlantic water masses into the Mediterranean. The distributions of Coccolith us pelagicus and Oolithotlls fl'agilis in Pleistocene sediments are noted in view of their value for paleoenvironmental interpretation. Since late Miocene time marked differences are recognized between Eastern and Western Mediterranean nannoplankton assemblages.