title: Early anthropogenic transformation of the Danube-Black Sea system.
abstract: Over the last century humans have altered the export of fluvial materials leading to significant changes in morphology, chemistry, and biology of the coastal ocean. Here we present sedimentary, paleoenvironmental and paleogenetic evidence to show that the Black Sea, a nearly enclosed marine basin, was affected by land use long before the changes of the Industrial Era. Although watershed hydroclimate was spatially and temporally variable over the last ~3000 years, surface salinity dropped systematically in the Black Sea. Sediment loads delivered by Danube River, the main tributary of the Black Sea, significantly increased as land use intensified in the last two millennia, which led to a rapid expansion of its delta. Lastly, proliferation of diatoms and dinoflagellates over the last five to six centuries, when intensive deforestation occurred in Eastern Europe, points to an anthropogenic pulse of river-borne nutrients that radically transformed the food web structure in the Black Sea.
authors.affiliation: Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA. lgiosan@whoi.edu
authors.forename: Liviu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Giosan
authors.forename: Marco J L
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Coolen
authors.forename: Jed O
authors.initials: JO
authors.lastname: Kaplan
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Constantinescu
authors.forename: Florin
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Filip
authors.forename: Mariana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Filipova-Marinova
authors.forename: Albert J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kettner
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Thom
mesh_terms: D059038:Black Sea; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D017753:Ecosystem; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005061:Europe, Eastern; D020387:Food Chain; D005843:Geography; D019015:Geologic Sediments; D006801:Humans; D045483:Rivers; D054712:Salinity; D012623:Seawater