Paleoclimatic reconstructions of the northern Red Sea during the Holocene inferred from stable isotope records of modern and fossil corals and molluscs.

Abstract

Fossil corals and molluscs from elevated and submerged reef terraces of the western Gulf of Aqaba (northern Red Sea) document Holocene climate changes in the northern Red Sea. The stable isotopic composition of oxygen and carbon in massive modern and fossil corals (Porites spp.) and also in modern and fossil molluscs (Tridacna spp.) is used to reconstruct the past climatic and oceanographic changes during the Holocene in the northern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba.