The quantitative reconstruction of salinity changes using diatom assemblages in inland saline lakes in the central part of Turkey during the Late Quaternary

Climatic changes during the Late Quaternary have been studied using three sediment cores from closed and semi-arid lacustrine basins in central Anatolia, Turkey, based on diatom assemblages of sediments. The first step in using diatoms as salinity indicators is to obtain quantitative data concerning their ecological characteristics along salinity gradients. Using 51 samples of living diatoms from 38 lakes and rivers in Turkey, an abundance-weighted mean salinity was calculated for each taxon. On the basis of a strong relationship between diatom composition and salinity, the diatom-based transfer functions were defined for the salinity reconstruction, and then applied to three drill cores from Late Quaternary lacustrine sediments from Konya Basin. The oscillations of the diatom-inferred salinity of the cores generally indicate "glacial-pluvial" correlations. High salinity levels were associated with inter-glacial stages, and low sanity levels indicate glacial stages. The curves also included the phases of shorter oscillations ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 years, presumably caused by global climate changes and local environmental changes.