The ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee (Levant): species distribution and post-mortem dispersal of valves and carapaces

The ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee (Levant): species distribution and post-mortem dispersal of valves and carapaces | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article The ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee (Levant): species distribution and post-mortem dispersal of valves and carapaces Steffen Mischke, Paul Braun, Emi Ito, Ahuva Almogi-Labin This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4431221/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 26 Oct, 2024 Read the published version in Journal of Paleolimnology → Version 1 posted 9 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The Sea of Galilee is the one and only large freshwater or slightly oligohaline natural lake in the Levant, and it therefore represents an important aquatic habitat in the region that also provides invaluable ecosystem services for the local communities. To improve our knowledge of the lake’s ecosystem and the use of disarticulated ostracod valves and preserved carapaces, micro-crustacean remains commonly used in palaeolimnology and palaeoceanography, as proxies for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and to examine the post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains, 68 surface-sediment samples were collected from the lake floor in 2012 and analysed for the ostracod assemblages. Both, the noded and smooth, forms of Cyprideis torosa dominate in the Sea of Galilee, with the former more abundant than the latter. Relatively abundant and found at half of the 68 sampling locations or more, are also Ilyocypris hartmanni , I . cf. nitida , Darwinula stevensoni and Neglecandona angulata . In addition, ten less abundant ostracod taxa were recorded in the lake. Of all 15 taxa recorded in our study, ten were apparently also recorded in a study of the Sea of Galilee’s ostracod fauna conducted already in the 1960s. The newly recorded five taxa are relatively rare, and they were mostly found in the region of the Jordan River delta or near the southeastern shore of the lake which were not included in the survey of the 1960s. Thus, there is no evidence for a significant change in the ostracod fauna of the lake over the last half-century. In comparison to the ostracod assemblage from a late Pleistocene archaeological excavation site at the southwestern margin of the lake, the assemblage from the recent survey is slightly less diverse, probably as a result of the long duration of ca. 5000 years integrated by the sedimentary section of the archaeological site and also due to nearby freshwater inflows from which valves and carapaces were probably washed to the site’s location. Our study also shows that ostracod valves and carapaces are typically relatively abundant in most of the surface-sediment samples collected from locations at 18 m or shallower. In contrast, very few valves and carapaces were recorded at depths greater than 18 m, which is a zone affected by seasonal anoxia in the Sea of Galilee. These few ostracod remains were apparently transported by currents and waves to the central, deeper part of the lake, but their low number shows that such post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains is insignificant in the deeper part of the lake. Thus, our study provides support for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstructions based on ostracod records from single sediment cores obtained from depths unaffected by post-mortem transport and seasonal or permanent anoxia. Ostracoda Crustacea Taphonomy Biodiversity Lake Gennesaret Near East Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Introduction The valves of ostracods are among those organism remains such as pollen and spores, diatoms or chironomid head capsules, which are most commonly used for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in non-marine settings. The calcitic remains of these micro-crustaceans are typically ca. 1 mm long, and abundant in the deposits of more or less stagnant and non-acidic water bodies. Thus, ostracod valves represent an important proxy to reconstruct landscape change or climate conditions in the past, and to infer relatively recent or more ancient human impacts on water bodies (von Grafenstein et al. 1999 ; Mischke et al. 2010 , 2017 ; Parameswari et al. 2020 ; Quante et al. 2022 ). Reliable ostracod-based palaeoecological inferences can be provided if fossil ostracod assemblages include extant species, and if the modern distribution and ecological tolerance ranges of these taxa are well-known. In such cases, individual species may serve to indicate specific conditions such as the salinity or temperature of water bodies, the presence of macrophytes or the oxygenation of host waters. Furthermore, relative species-abundance data for modern assemblages and physicochemical data of the investigated water bodies recorded during sampling can be used to quantitatively estimate limnological parameters of ancient water bodies based on fossil assemblages (i.e., the transfer function approach; Viehberg 2006 ; Mezquita et al. 2005 ; Mischke et al. 2014a ). The Near East is a region where such information of the modern ostracod distribution was and is extensively collected (Martens 1993 ; Martens and Ortal 1999 ; Altınsaçlı and Griffiths 2002 ; Külköylüoğlu 2004 ; Mischke et al. 2012 ). The large number of studies in the region was probably at least partly triggered by the region’s rich history including the classical antiquity and much earlier periods of human activity back to periods of hominin migration out of Africa (Lev et al. 2014 ; Mischke et al. 2014b , 2021 ; Kalbe et al. 2015 , 2016 ; Pint et al. 2015 ; Shtienberg et al. 2022 ; Bunin et al. 2023). As one of the most prominent and rare freshwater lakes in the region, the Sea of Galilee received surprisingly little attention with respect to research on modern ostracods (Fig. 1 ). A single, systematic study was conducted in the 1960s by Lerner Seggev (1968), and a few but almost exclusively near-shore samples from the lake were included in the ostracod-based transfer function of Mischke et al. ( 2014a ). In contrast, many small water bodies both near and at various distances from the lake were sampled and their ostracod assemblages examined in the latter study. The Sea of Galilee is a warm-monomictic lake with a surface of 167 km² at an altitude of ca. 211 m below sea level and a corresponding maximum water depth of 43 m (Nishri et al. 1998 ). The lake is mainly fed by the Jordan River from the north (Fig. 1 ). Water in the lake is only slightly oligohaline (almost freshwater, total dissolved solids ca. 700 ± 100 mg/L) and its pH is ca. 8.6 (Nishri et al. 1998 ; Stiller et al. 2009 ). Rising temperatures following the winters cause not only a stable thermal stratification of the water from mid-May to late December but also seasonally occurring anoxia in the deeper part of the lake reaching up to ca. 18 m water depth (Nishri et al. 1998 ; Fig. 2 ). Strong, mostly westerly winds drive counterclockwise currents in the central part of the lake and two smaller clockwise gyres in the north and south (Pan et al. 2002 ; Marti and Imberger 2008 ). Location of the Sea of Galilee in the Levant, A General location in the eastern Mediterranean Sea region, B Location in northern Israel The lake is mostly surrounded by Pliocene basalts in the east, north and the lower catchment in the west, and Upper Cretaceous to Eocene limestones in the upper catchment in the west. Holocene unconsolidated sediments are located near the shores and in the outlet region in the south of the lake (Sneh et al. 1997 ). The lake basin is part of the north-south trending Dead Sea Transform (Fig. 1 ). Mean annual precipitation at Tiberias on the lake’s western shore is 403 mm with most of the rainfall arriving in December to February. Mean annual, January and July temperatures are 20.5°C, 11.8°C and 27.7°C, respectively (period 1991–2021; climate-data.org). Vegetation occurs as Maquis and Batha shrublands and is dominated by Quercus ithaburensis , Q. boisseri , (deciduous oaks), Q. calliprinos , (evergreen oak), and Olea europaea (olive; Danin 1988 ). However, the catchment vegetation is strongly altered on lower slopes and relatively flat regions to grow olives, citrus fruits, mangoes, apples, grapes, dates and bananas. In addition to intensive agriculture on fields in the lake’s vicinity, human impacts on the lake also result from the city of Tiberias and numerous smaller municipalities around the lake, and the large-scale diversion of water (started in the 1960s) from the lake via the National Water Carrier of Israel, a system to distribute water from the Sea of Galilee to many parts of Israel including regions as far south as Be’er Sheva in the Negev Desert, southern Israel. However, water diversion from the lake diminished in the last decade due to the increasing water supply from desalination plants in the Mediterranean Sea. The lake level is controlled by a weir at its outlet of the lower Jordan River in the south. In addition, water from saline springs, mostly along the western shore of the lake but also within the lake, is partly diverted to the lower Jordan River downstream of the lake. The lake is also heavily used for fishing and recreational activities (Shapiro et al. 2022 ). Bathymetry of the Sea of Galilee and sampling locations (A; T Tiberias); saturation of dissolved oxygen of surface waters and bottom waters at different locations in the lake during the fieldwork period (B); and mean monthly concentrations of dissolved oxygen at different water depths measured at Station A in the deepest part of the lake in 1986 (Nishri et al., 1998 ; C) To further improve the knowledge of the modern distribution of ostracods in the region, we investigated sediments collected from the floor of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. The lake was chosen as target location due to (1) its ecological importance as the only quasi freshwater lake in Israel, (2) the many already discovered and yet to be discovered archaeological sites with fossil ostracod records in the areas nearby (Almogi-Labin et al. 1995 ; Bridgland et al. 2012 ; Lev et al. 2014 ; Mischke et al. 2014b , 2021 ; Kalbe et al. 2015 , 2016 ; Rech et al. 2017 ; Rabinovich et al. 2019 ; Al-Saqarat et al. 2020 ; Bunin et al. 2024 ), (3) the possibility of examining changes in the ostracod assemblage since the first systematic study, carried out in the 1960s by Lerner-Seggev ( 1968 ), and (4) the chance to assess the degree of post-mortem transport of ostracod valves in the lake afforded by the presence of a seasonally expanding/contracting anoxic zone in the deeper part of the lake where valves are not likely to be in-situ remains (Nishri et al. 1998 ). Thus, the following research questions were addressed: (1) Which ostracod taxa occur in the Sea of Galilee; which taxa dominate, and which taxa are rare? (2) Was the ostracod faunal assemblage of the lake significantly altered due to human activities since the 1960s? (3) Are ostracod valves transported by currents and waves to the seasonally anoxic zone of the lake? Material and methods Surface sediment samples from the lake floor were collected in January 2012 from 68 locations in the lake with an Ekman-Birge mud grab (Fig. 2 ). Sediment was placed into a bowl and immediately examined for living ostracods by naked eye and using a portable Nikon 20x field stereoscopic microscope. Then, sediments from the uppermost 1 cm were scraped off and stored in plastic bottles at 4°C until further processing in the lab. A subsample of 100 mL per sample was washed through sieves (100, 250 and 1000 µm), sieve residues dried at 50°C in a drying oven and distributed on a 9 x 5 cm picking tray to pick ostracod valves and carapaces under an Olympus SZ60 microscope. Well-preserved, adult and clean specimens were selected and documented using a Zeiss Supra 40 VP scanning electron microscope at Free University of Berlin (Germany). Results In total, 6295 ostracod valves and 1053 carapaces were recorded in the 68 samples from the lake (Fig. 3 ). Two samples from 37.3 and 39.6 m water depth did not contain ostracod remains (Fig. 4 ). The highest abundance in a sample was recorded at a location near Haon Beach at the southeastern shore with 0.3 m water depth which yielded 393 valves and 21 carapaces (Fig. 3 ). The ostracod assemblage from the Sea of Galilee includes 15 taxa with Cyprideis torosa representing the dominating taxon (valves and carapaces represent 82% of the assemblage; Fig. 5 , Table 1 , Electronic Supplementary Material ESM 1). Specimens with nodes ( C. torosa f. littoralis ) and those without ( C. torosa f. torosa ) represent 56 and 26% of the assemblage, respectively (Fig. 3 ). Ilyocypris hartmanni is the second most abundant taxon (6%), followed by Ilyocypris nitida (4%; Table 1 ). Potamocypris cf. mastigophora was recorded with four valves in total at three locations, and Candonopsis kingsleii with a single valve (Fig. 5 ). Living specimens of C. torosa f. torosa were recorded at three locations close to the mouth of the Jordan River and one spot near the southeastern shore of the lake (13 specimens in total). Living specimens of C. torosa f. littoralis were recorded at eight locations (10 specimens in total; Fig. 3 ). In addition, one living specimen of Neglecandona angulata was found, occurring also in a sample collected close to the mouth of the Jordan River. Discussion The ostracod assemblage in the Sea of Galilee: the 2012 data The ostracod assemblage of the lake is clearly dominated by C. torosa which accounts for ca. four fifths of the total assemblage. However, only four samples exclusively included valves and/or carapaces of C. torosa . The noded and smooth forms of C. torosa do not show a systematic distributional pattern in the Sea of Galilee. Both occur over the full depth range from shallowest locations (0.3 m) down to 32 m depth where ostracod remains were recorded. However, abundances of the smooth form C. torosa f. littoralis are significantly higher above a water depth of ca. 12 m in comparison to deeper locations, possibly as a result of the larger influence of saline springs at the lake shores and littoral locations within the lake (Frenzel et al. 2012 ; Fig. 5 ). Ilyocypris hartmanni reaches higher abundances in a moderate depth range of ca. 5–12 m. The other member of the genus, I . cf. nitida , shows higher numbers in shallow waters of 5 m and less, and also in a range between 14–18 m. Number of ostracod remains and living specimens in surface samples from the Sea of Galilee. Number of valves (A); number of carapaces (B, bubble size similar to those in A with a carapace representing two valves); number of taxa (C); portion of noded C. torosa in relation to all C. torosa (D); specimens of C. torosa f. torosa (orange) and N. angulata (green) collected alive (E); and specimens of C. torosa f. littoralis collected alive (F); white crosses in A and B indicate absence In contrast, abundances of Darwinula stevensoni are typically higher in the intermediate depth range from 5–15 m. Neglecandona angulata occurs over the full depth range where ostracod remains were recorded but higher abundances were recorded only at a few locations in a range of 16–25 m. Humphcypris subterranea was more sporadically recorded, mostly in shallower waters down to 8 m. Highest abundances were found in the delta region of the Jordan River at the northern lake shore, likely indicating that the species not only prefers springs and streams flowing from springs but flowing waters in general (Hartmann 1964 ; Mischke et al. 2014a ). A somewhat similar pattern (shallow water depth, higher abundance in the delta region of the Jordan River) is observed for Cypridopsis vidua , Isocypris beauchampi and Pseudocandona sp. (Figs. 5 – 6 ). Valves and carapaces of these taxa possibly and at least partly originated from the flowing waters on the Jordan River fan. In contrast, Heterocypris salina , Herpetocypris sp., P. cf. mastigophora and C. kingsleii were recorded predominantly or exclusively near the southeastern margin of the lake which is shallow with a relatively flat lake floor and dense emerged vegetation of reeds and sedges near and on the shore. Loxoconcha galilea , only reported from the modern lake and the lake’s deposits of last glacial maximum (LGM) age so far, was found at only three widely-spaced locations at depths between 5–16 m (Figs. 5 – 6 ; Lerner-Seggev 1968 ; Mischke et al. 2014a ). Of the 15 taxa recorded in our survey, seven species ( P . cf. mastigophora as P. producta , a younger synonym) were already reported from the Sea of Galilee in the study by Lerner-Seggev ( 1968 ). A few, poorly preserved and thus, not thoroughly examined specimens of Candona and Candonopsis were noted by Lerner-Seggev ( 1968 ) too. These likely correspond to specimens identified from the 2012 materials as Neglecandona angulata (species formerly assigned to Candona and recently combined with Neglecandona ; Meisch et al. 2019 ), as Pseudocandona sp. (with many species formerly assigned to Candona and combined with Pseudocandona in the 1970s and later on; Danielopol 1973 ; Meisch 2000 ), and as Candonopsis kingsleii . Assuming these three taxa were recorded by Lerner-Seggev ( 1968 ), only H. subterranea , H . salina , C . vidua , Herpetocypris sp. and I . beauchampi were apparently not identified in the study from the 1960s. These five taxa were mostly recorded in the Jordan River delta region or near the southeastern shore of the lake which were not included in the littoral samples or two depth transects of Lerner-Seggev ( 1968 ). Thus, the higher number of taxa recorded in the 2012 survey probably results from the higher number of samples collected all over the lake rather than because of recent introductions to the lake. The comparability of both studies is also limited due to the use of dip nets in littoral areas and an Emery-type grab and Ockelman dredge at larger depth in the 1960s, and an Ekman-Birge grab in 2012. Lerner-Seggev ( 1968 ) stated that the results of her “research are qualitative” whilst specimens per 100 mL of surface mud were counted in the newly conducted study. However, taxa recorded in the 1960s were all identified in the 2012 material too, suggesting that the ostracod assemblage of the Sea of Galilee did not experience significant changes. This inference is surprising, given the large variations in the volume of water extracted from the lake via the National Water Carrier of Israel and the resulting lake-level and water-chemistry changes, and the significant changes in the nitrogen and phosphorus fluxes in the lake during recent decades (Nishri and Hamilton 2010 ; Rimmer and Nishri 2014 ; Gophen 2020 ). Detailed data for the distribution of the recorded ostracod taxa in the Sea of Galilee. Panels are arranged with most abundant taxon to the upper left and least abundant to the lower right (note the three different abundance scales). Taxa codes in Table 1 Comparison of the data for 2012 with the ostracod assemblage from the last ice age Although clearly dominant in the 2012 samples, C. torosa is even more abundant in the ice-age sediment samples collected from the archaeological site Ohalo-II at the southwestern shore of the lake in comparison to the accompanying taxa (Figs. 2 , 7 ). Noded specimens of C. torosa are significantly less abundant in the Ohalo deposits, indicating that conditions were probably more brackish in the LGM lake (Frenzel et al. 2012 ). However, drier conditions are not necessarily implied for the LGM due to the well-documented precipitation-driven higher discharge of saline brines from deep sources in the Sea of Galilee region and the resulting direct relationship between catchment precipitation and lake salinity (Goldschmidt et al. 1967 ; Gvirtzman et al. 1997 ; Rimmer et al. 1999 ). Higher precipitation in the region during the LGM was recently inferred from another archaeological site at the Jordan River upstream of the Sea of Galilee which confirmed earlier reconstructions of highest lake levels in the Dead Sea Basin (Torfstein et al. 2013 ; Rice et al. 2023 ; Bunin et al. 2024 ). However, there are a few additional ostracod taxa recorded at Ohalo-II which were not found in samples from 2012. Among them are typical freshwater species such as Gomphocythere ortali and Candona candida and other species commonly found at slightly more brackish locations such as Sarscypridopsis aculeata or Neglecandona neglecta (Fig. 7 ). In addition, valves of Prionocypris zenkeri had been recorded at Ohalo-II, a species typically occurring in slowly flowing streams with dense aquatic vegetation (Meisch 2000 ). Comparison of mean relative species abundance data for the ostracod assemblage from the Sea of Galilee in 2012 and that of the trench samples from the archaeological site Ohalo-II at the southwestern shore of the lake, dated to ca. 23 ka. (only samples with a minimum of 50 valves (disarticulated and articulated) included) These additional species, although recorded with very low numbers, probably result from the larger number of samples investigated for the LGM location, the integrated record of ca. 5 ka duration, from ca. 25 − 20 ka, and the proximity of the shore and transport of ostracods into the lake from nearby springs and streams (Fig. 7 ; Mischke et al. 2014a ). Assessment of post-mortem transport of ostracod remains to the seasonally anoxic zone of the lake The numbers of recorded ostracod valves and carapaces per 100 mL of collected surface sediment vary over a large range at a lake depth of 18 m and shallower (range, average and standard deviation for valves: 4-393, 120, 109; for carapaces: 0–73, 20, 20; Fig. 4 ). In contrast, valves and carapaces are significantly less abundant at lake depths larger than 18 m (range, average and standard deviation for valves: 0–42, 6, 10; for carapaces: 0–4, 1, 1). This distributional pattern with a relatively abrupt change at ca. 18 m depth suggests that most of the benthic environment of the hypolimnion, the seasonally anoxic lake floor beneath 18 m depth, is not occupied by living ostracods during the period of water-column mixing in winter. A homogenous water temperature in the water column of the Sea of Galilee and mixing typically occur from mid-December to mid-March but weather conditions may shorten or extend this period to ca. three weeks or four months, respectively (Nishri et al. 1998 ). The observed significant change in the numbers of ostracod remains at 18 m depth corresponds to the position of the thermocline in the lake, reported to occur between 17–19 m (Marti and Imberger 2008 ; Imberger and Marti 2014 ). However, one live specimen of C. torosa f. littoralis was recorded at 19 m and two animals at 22 m lake depth during the sampling campaign in January 2012 in the northern part of the lake (Fig. 3 ). Thus, the uppermost part of the lake floor beneath the thermocline might be here and there inhabited by ostracods due to the shorter duration of anoxic conditions at shallower water depth (Fig. 2 ). Alternatively, the colder inflowing waters of the Jordan River possibly cause an underflow of well-oxygenated waters in this region of the lake, supporting ostracods at a lake depth which is typically not oxic in regions more distal from the river delta. In general, the paucity of ostracod valves and carapaces on the lake floor below the depth of the thermocline provide evidence that most of these valves and carapaces were transported to the hypolimnion of the Sea of Galilee by wind-driven currents and waves. Valves were absent at only two of the 68 sampling locations with lake depths of 37.3 and 39.6 m, situated in the central and deepest part of the lake (Fig. 2 ). In contrast, carapaces were not recorded at ten locations including a single position above the thermocline, located at 1.8 m depth near the northeastern shore of the lake (Fig. 2 ). The lower abundance of carapaces below the thermocline in comparison to valves shows that the lighter and relatively disc- or bowl-shaped disarticulated valves are apparently more efficiently transported over longer distances by currents. Studies by Reyment ( 1960 ), Kilenyi ( 1971 ) and Kontrovitz ( 1975 ) suggested that ostracod valves are probably less easily mobilized than carapaces by currents but once brought into suspension, may travel longer distances than carapaces. Zhai et al. ( 2015 ) and Mao et al. ( 2021 ) recognized that the post-mortem transport of especially juvenile ostracod valves is significant in three large brackish lakes on the Mongolian Plateau in Inner Mongolia (Northern China) and a freshwater lake in the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang (Northwestern China). Their lakes are all shallower than 14 m, and a similar post-mortem dispersal may apply, especially for juvenile valves in the shallower parts of the Sea of Galilee. However, the paucity of valves and carapaces in the surface deposits of the Sea of Galilee at greater depth shows that reworking and transport of ostracod remains to the more central and deeper part of the lake is insignificant. Thus, ostracod valves from locations in lake basins unaffected by most-mortem transport represent the local habitat characteristics as the main control of the recovered species-assemblage composition unless the specific basin is affected by conditions such as frequent mass movements (Wirth et al. 2011 ; Simonneau et al. 2013 ). Table 1 Ostracod taxa from the Sea of Galilee with numbers of animals collected alive, valves, carapaces and locations the taxon was found (total number of locations: 68) Taxon Code Animals Valves Carapaces Sampling locations Cyprideis torosa forma torosa (Jones, 1850) Ctorft 10 3842 421 63 Cyprideis torosa forma littoralis (Jones, 1850) Ctorfl 13 1235 446 63 Ilyocypris hartmanni Lerner-Seggev, 1968 Ihar 412 48 41 Ilyocypris cf. nitida Lerner-Seggev, 1968 Icfn 293 25 35 Darwinula stevensoni (Brady & Robertson, 1870) Dste 124 68 33 Neglecandona angulata (G.W. Müller, 1900) Nang 1 245 6 41 Humphcypris subterranea (Hartmann, 1964 ) Hsub 58 8 Limnocythere inopinata (Baird, 1843) Lino 22 13 19 Heterocypris salina (Brady, 1868) Hsal 23 2 Cypridopsis vidua (O.F. Müller, 1776) Cvid 12 6 Herpetocypris sp. Herp 8 5 Isocypris beauchampi (Paris, 1920) Ibea 6 2 Pseudocandona sp. Pseu 3 1 4 Loxoconcha galilea Lerner-Seggev, 1968 Lgal 3 1 3 Potamocypris cf. mastigophora (Méthuen, 1910) Pcfm 4 3 Candonopsis kingsleii (Brady & Robertson, 1870) Ckin 1 1 Conclusions The conducted study of the ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee shows that the typical brackish water species C. torosa dominates even though the lake is only slightly oligohaline, and that there are 14 additional accompanying taxa of which the more abundant species were already recorded in a previous study of the lake’s fauna in the 1960s. Sampling procedures were different for these two surveys but the available evidence suggests that the lake’s ostracod assemblage remained virtually unchanged over the last 50 years or so. Very few ostracod remains were observed from greater than the summer-thermocline depth, and thus, from the zone of seasonal anoxia, providing evidence for the insignificant post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains to the deeper central part of the lake. This observation suggests that palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstructions based on ostracod records are reliable and not significantly biased by the post-mortem relocation of valves or carapaces if sediment cores were recovered from depths unaffected by post-mortem transport and seasonal or permanent anoxia. Very few living ostracods were recorded in our survey and a different study design (for example, other sampling approaches including net sampling or the collection of short sediment cores, sampling during different seasons) will be required to improve the knowledge on the distribution of the living fauna in the lake. Archaeological sites related to former water bodies are numerous not only in the larger region including Jordan (e.g., Hamra Faddan, Jurf ed Darawish, Wadi Gharandal, Wadi Hasa) or Syria (e.g., Ghab Basin, Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar) but also in the close vicinity of the Sea of Galilee including the Erq el Ahmar Elephant Site with an estimated age of > 2 Ma, the Acheulian ‘Ubeidiya and Gesher Benot Ya’qov sites, the Middle Paleolithic Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet, the Upper Paleolithic/Epipaleolithic Ohalo II, and the Epipalaeolithic Jordan River Dureijat (Almogi-Labin et al. 1995 ; Bridgland et al. 2012 ; Lev et al. 2014 ; Mischke et al. 2014b , 2021 ; Kalbe et al. 2015 , 2016 ; Rech et al. 2017 ; Rabinovich et al. 2019 ; Al-Saqarat et al. 2020 ; Bunin et al. 2024 ). Fossil ostracods were reported from all these sites, and some of the locations are currently newly excavated. The presented distribution of the ostracod species in the Sea of Galilee will serve as a useful reference in comparison to the fossil ostracod assemblages from such excavations and will allow the assessment of Pleistocene water bodies which supported human activities in the region since the early Pleistocene. In addition, our study also provides a reference for the future assessment of the Sea of Galilee’s state in times of climate change and increasing pressures on the ecosystem due to human impacts. Declarations Acknowledgements We thank Ami Nishri, Marieke Ahlborn, Johannes Kalbe and Michael Kitin for help during fieldwork. Funding declaration Funding was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant Mi 730/13-1) to SM, the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1663/16) to AA-L and the BSF US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (Award 2010347) to AA-L and EI. Competing interest declaration The authors declare that there are no competing interests. 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New data from field observations and a long-term microcosm experiment. Int Rev Hydrobiol 97:314-329 Goldschmidt MJ, Arad A, Neev D (1967) The mechanism of the saline springs in the Lake Tiberias depression. Geol Surv Israel Bull 45:1-19 Gophen M (2020) Climate and water balance changes in the Kinneret watershed: a review. Open J Mod Hydrol 10:21-29 Gvirtzman H, Garven G, Gvirtzman G (1997) Hydrogeological modeling of the saline hot springs at the Sea of Galilee, Israel. Water Resour Res 33:913-926 Hartmann G (1964) Asiatische Ostracoden. Systematische und zoogeographische Untersuchungen. Int Rev gesamten Hydrobiol Beiheft 3:1-155 Imberger J, Marti CL (2014). Chapter 9: The Seasonal Hydrodynamic Habitat. In: Zohary T, Sukenik A, Berman T, Nishri A (eds) Lake Kinneret, Ecology and Management. Aquatic Ecology Series 6, Springer, New York, pp 133-157 Kalbe J, Jagher R, Pümpin C (2016) The spring of Nadaouiyeh Aïn Askar — paleoecology of a Paleolithic oasis in arid central Syria. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 446:252-262 Kalbe J, Mischke S, Dulski P, Sharon G (2015) The Middle Palaeolithic Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet Site, Israel: reconstructing the environment of Late Pleistocene wetlands in the Eastern Mediterranean from ostracods. J Archaeol Sci 54:385-395 Kilenyi TI (1971) Some basic questions in the Paleoecology of ostracods. In: Oertli HJ (ed) Colloquium on the paleoecology of Ostracodes. PAU 1970, pp 31-44 Kontrovitz M (1975) A study of the differential transportation of ostracodes. J Paleontol 49:937-941 Külköylüoğlu O. (2004) On the usage of ostracods (Crustacea) as bioindicator species in different aquatic habitats in the Bolu region, Turkey. Ecol Ind 4:139-147. Lerner-Seggev R (1968) The fauna of Ostracoda in Lake Tiberias. Israeli J Zool 17:117-143 Lev L, Almogi-Labin A, Mischke S, Ito E, Ben-Avraham Z, Stein M (2014) Paleohydrology of Lake Kinneret during the Heinrich event H2. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 396:183-193 Mao X, Liu X, Li J, Feng S, Jiang G, Liu L (2021) Population age structure of ostracods in lake sediment and its implication for within-lake transport of microfossils. Ecol Ind 131:108182 Martens K (1993) The ostracod fauna of the old Lake Hula (Israel) (Crustacea, Ostracoda). Travaux scientifiques du Musée national d'histoire naturelle de Luxembourg 19:67-75 Martens K, Ortal R (1999) Diversity and zoogeography of inland-water Ostracoda (Crustacea) in Israel (Levant). Israel J Zool 45:159-173 Marti CL, Imberger J (2008) Exchange between littoral and pelagic waters in a stratified lake due to wind-induced motions: Lake Kinneret, Israel. Hydrobiologia 603:25-51 Meisch C (2000) Freshwater Ostracoda of Western and Central Europe. Spektrum, Heidelberg, 522 pp. Meisch C, Scharf B, Fuhrmann R, Thiery A (2019) Neglecandona altoides (Petkovski, 1961) nov. comb. and the genus Neglecandona Krstic, 2006 (Crustacea, Ostracoda, Candonidae). Bull Soc Nat Luxemb 121:237-264 Mezquita F, Roca JR, Reed JM, Wansard G (2005) Quantifying species–environment relationships in non-marine Ostracoda for ecological and palaeoecological studies: Examples using Iberian data. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 225:93-117 Mischke S, Almogi-Labin A, Al-Saqarat B, Rosenfeld A, Elyashiv H, Boomer I, Stein M, Lev L, Ito E (2014a) An expanded ostracod-based conductivity transfer function for climate reconstruction in the Levant. Quat Sci Rev 93:91-105 Mischke S, Ashkenazi S, Almogi-Labin A, Goren-Inbar N (2014b) Ostracod evidence for the Acheulian environment of the ancient Hula Lake (Levant) during the early-mid Pleistocene transition. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 412:148-159 Mischke S, Ginat H, Al-Saqarat B, Almogi-Labin A (2012) Ostracods from water bodies in hyperarid Israel and Jordan as habitat and water chemistry indicators. Ecol Ind 14:87-99 Mischke S, Lai Z, Faershtein G, Porat N, Röhl M, Braun P, Kalbe J, Ginat H (2021) A Late Pleistocene wetland setting in the arid Jurf-ed-Darawish region in central Jordan. Front Earth Sci 9:722435 Mischke S, Liu C, Zhang J, Zhang C, Zhang H, Jiao P, Plessen B (2017) The world’s earliest Aral-Sea type disaster: the decline of the Loulan Kingdom in the Tarim Basin. Sci Rep 7:43102 Mischke S, Sun Z, Herzschuh U, Qiao Z, Sun N (2010) An ostracod-inferred large Middle Pleistocene freshwater lake in the presently hyper-arid Qaidam Basin (NW China). Quat Int 218:74-85 Nishri A, Hamilton DP (2010) A mass balance evaluation of the ecological significance of historical nitrogen fluxes in Lake Kinneret. Hydrobiologia 655:109-119 Nishri A, Zohary T, Gophen M, Wynne D (1998) Lake Kinneret dissolved oxygen regime reflects long term changes in ecosystem functioning. Biogeochemistry 42:253–283 Pan H, Avissar R, Haidvogel DB (2002) Summer circulation and temperature structure of Lake Kinneret. J Phys Oceanogr 32:295-313 Parameswari E, Davamani V, Kalaiarasi R, Ilakiya T, Arulmani S (2020) Utilization of ostracods (Crustacea) as bioindicator for environmental pollutants. Int Res J Pure Appl Chem:73-93 Pint A, Seeliger M, Frenzel P, Feuser S, Erkul E, Berndt C, Klein C, Pirson F, Brückner H (2015) The environs of Elaia's ancient open harbour – a reconstruction based on microfaunal evidence. J Archaeol Sci 54:340-355 Quante E, Pint A, Frenzel P (2022) Nonmarine Ostracoda as proxies in (geo-)archaeology — A review. Geoarchaeology 37:711-732 Rabinovich R, Herzlinger G, Calvo R, Rivals F, Mischke S, Beiner G (2019) Erq el Ahmar Elephant Site – a mammoth skeleton at a rare and controversial Plio-Pleistocene site along the mammal migration route out of Africa. Quat Sci Rev 221:105885 Rech JA, Ginat H, Catlett GA, Mischke S, Tully EW, Pigati JS (2017) Pliocene–Pleistocene water bodies and associated deposits in southern Israel and southern Jordan. In: Enzel Y, Bar-Yosef O (eds) Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change, and Humans. Cambridge University Press, pp 127-134 Reyment RA (1960) Studies on Nigerian Upper Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary Ostracoda: Part I, Senonian and Maastrichtian Ostracoda. Stockholm Contr Geol 7:1-238 Rice A, Bunin E, Plessen B, Sharon G, Mischke S (2023) Implications of submonthly oxygen and carbon isotope variations in late Pleistocene Melanopsis shells for regional and local hydroclimate in the upper Jordan River valley. Quat Res 115:146-159 Rimmer A, Hurwitz S, Gvirtzman H (1999) Spatial and temporal characteristics of saline springs: Sea of Galilee, Israel. Groundwater 37:663-673 Rimmer A, Nishri A (2014) Chapter 8: Salinity. In: Zohary T, Sukenik A, Berman T, Nishri A (eds) Lake Kinneret, Ecology and Management. Aquatic Ecology Series 6, Springer, New York, pp 113-131 Shapiro JA,·Spanier E, Gal G (2022) Ecosystem changes drive modifications to fish diets and trophic interactions in Lake Kinneret, Israel. Hydrobiologia 849:4741-4757 Shtienberg G, Cantu K, Mischke S, Sivan D, Norris RD, Rittenour TM, Edelman-Furstenberg Y, Yasur-Landau A, Sisma-Ventura G, Levy TE (2022) Holocene sea-level rise and coastal aquifer interactions: triggering mechanisms for environmental change and impacts on human settlement patterns at Dor, Israel. Quat Sci Rev 294:107740 Simonneau A, Chapron E, Vannière B, Wirth SB, Gilli A, Di Giovanni C, Anselmetti FS, Desmet M, Magny M (2013) Mass-movement and flood-induced deposits in Lake Ledro, southern Alps, Italy: implications for Holocene palaeohydrology and natural hazards. Clim Past 9:825-840 Sneh A, Bartov Y, Rosensaft M (1997) Geological Map of Israel 1:200,000 Sheet 1. State of Israel, Ministry of National Infrastructures, Geological Survey of Israel, Jerusalem. Stiller M, Rosenbaum JM, Nishri A (2009) The origin of brines underlying Lake Kinneret. Chem Geol 262:293-309 Torfstein A, Goldstein SL, Stein M, Enzel Y (2013) Impacts of abrupt climate changes in the Levant from Last Glacial Dead Sea levels. Quat Sci Rev 69:1-7 Viehberg FA (2006) Freshwater ostracod assemblages and their relationship to environmental variables in waters from northeast Germany. Hydrobiologia 571:213-224 von Grafenstein U, Erlenkeuser H, Brauer A, Jouzel J, Johnsen SJ (1999) A mid-European decadal isotope-climate record from 15,500 to 5000 years B.P. Science 284:1654-1657 Wirth SB, Girardclos S, Rellstab C, Anselmetti FS (2011) The sedimentary response to a pioneer geo-engineering project: tracking the Kander River deviation in the sediments of Lake Thun (Switzerland). Sedimentology 58:1737-1761 Zhai D, Xiao J, Fan J, Wen R, Pang Q (2015) Differential transport and preservation of the instars of Limnocythere inopinata (Crustacea, Ostracoda) in three large brackish lakes in northern China. Hydrobiologia 747:1-18 Electronic Supplementary Material ESM 1 Electronic Supplementary Material ESM 1 is not available with this version Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 26 Oct, 2024 Read the published version in Journal of Paleolimnology → Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 05 Jul, 2024 Reviews received at journal 03 Jul, 2024 Reviews received at journal 02 Jul, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 05 Jun, 2024 Reviewers agreed at journal 05 Jun, 2024 Reviewers invited by journal 05 Jun, 2024 Submission checks completed at journal 21 May, 2024 Editor assigned by journal 21 May, 2024 First submitted to journal 16 May, 2024 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4431221","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":308360677,"identity":"5745d811-90c9-47ce-8220-a1a6aac53b73","order_by":0,"name":"Steffen Mischke","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAAfklEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFACxsbHDAYMPCRpaTYmVQsDmzRJyhnkpx1uqy4oYJCRbyBWi8HtxLbbM4AOMzhAtBZpoBYekBbiHTY7sa0YpIV4hzEAHcYM0sJAvMNuJzZL8xhIkOAX+dnpDz/z/LGxJ8FhECBBovpRMApGwSgYBfgBADR1HDFKymFiAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"University of Iceland","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Steffen","middleName":"","lastName":"Mischke","suffix":""},{"id":308360678,"identity":"5666ef11-a079-4680-9803-4f299f9190ad","order_by":1,"name":"Paul Braun","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Musée National d’Histoire Naturelle","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Paul","middleName":"","lastName":"Braun","suffix":""},{"id":308360679,"identity":"c2d0b702-fd0c-45fc-a0e4-cb7d9b23b143","order_by":2,"name":"Emi Ito","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Minnesota","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Emi","middleName":"","lastName":"Ito","suffix":""},{"id":308360680,"identity":"8d3de5f3-24c3-4682-900d-1915ff7baefb","order_by":3,"name":"Ahuva Almogi-Labin","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"The Geological Survey of Israel","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Ahuva","middleName":"","lastName":"Almogi-Labin","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2024-05-16 12:59:38","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4431221/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4431221/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-024-00346-8","type":"published","date":"2024-10-26T15:56:59+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":57651024,"identity":"51344e84-01ec-4823-ae21-97b7df301517","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-03 22:45:12","extension":"png","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":760230,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eLocation of the Sea of Galilee in the Levant, A General location in the eastern Mediterranean Sea region, B Location in northern Israel\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig1.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/a4bb93fdfd64f5c1de0b0ba7.png"},{"id":57651152,"identity":"7923323d-dff8-4f00-b09a-5912a384f2fe","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-03 22:53:12","extension":"png","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":677593,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eBathymetry of the Sea of Galilee and sampling locations (A; T Tiberias); saturation of dissolved oxygen of surface waters and bottom waters at different locations in the lake during the fieldwork period (B); and mean monthly concentrations of dissolved oxygen at different water depths measured at Station A in the deepest part of the lake in 1986 (Nishri et al., 1998; C)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig2.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/c1c0c43170e7324176e62ac7.png"},{"id":57650811,"identity":"26d29e2c-e3e5-4303-9948-599515a04844","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-03 22:37:12","extension":"png","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":2430669,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eNumber of ostracod remains and living specimens in surface samples from the Sea of Galilee. Number of valves (A); number of carapaces (B, bubble size similar to those in A with a carapace representing two valves); number of taxa (C); portion of noded \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e in relation to all \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e (D); specimens of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003ef. \u003cem\u003etorosa\u003c/em\u003e (orange) and \u003cem\u003eN. angulata\u003c/em\u003e (green) collected alive (E); and specimens of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003elittoralis\u003c/em\u003e collected alive (F); white crosses in A and B indicate absence\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig3.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/2bc62fce2a88adffa058447b.png"},{"id":57650809,"identity":"caf053fb-fda2-46b2-a41a-5f64ff2a4c52","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-03 22:37:12","extension":"png","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":109754,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eNumbers of valves and carapaces recorded at sampling locations with different lake depth\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig4.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/e7ec48476e7926f75a2c50ef.png"},{"id":57650815,"identity":"3893c441-bf3e-4571-9bbd-b2dfb43d1e11","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-03 22:37:13","extension":"png","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":1267172,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eAbsolute abundance of ostracod remains (valves and carapaces, counted as two valves) per 100 mL of surface sediment versus water depth in the Sea of Galilee.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig5.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/35fe59448a5fc2ba6883408c.png"},{"id":57650813,"identity":"28077927-90ce-4142-aec6-5ec0c918c0f3","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-03 22:37:12","extension":"png","order_by":6,"title":"Figure 6","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":5885383,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eDetailed data for the distribution of the recorded ostracod taxa in the Sea of Galilee. Panels are arranged with most abundant taxon to the upper left and least abundant to the lower right (note the three different abundance scales). Taxa codes in Table 1\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig6.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/2c3353f13ef1fbeb8c79f613.png"},{"id":57651026,"identity":"c15ddc0e-6c38-41c2-97a8-5f66a462718b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-06-03 22:45:12","extension":"png","order_by":7,"title":"Figure 7","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":187927,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eComparison of mean relative species abundance data for the ostracod assemblage from the Sea of Galilee in 2012 and that of the trench samples from the archaeological site Ohalo-II at the southwestern shore of the lake, dated to ca. 23 ka. (only samples with a minimum of 50 valves (disarticulated and articulated) included)\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"Fig7.png","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/71c4091b11f8ebe42e9ecf13.png"},{"id":67681673,"identity":"ff0eb76f-ef2f-46de-be91-e94d6c5deb8e","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-10-28 16:07:18","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":13611731,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-4431221/v1/e0f517a2-12c5-4068-a6f3-8fd278f22b96.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"The ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee (Levant): species distribution and post-mortem dispersal of valves and carapaces","fulltext":[{"header":"Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe valves of ostracods are among those organism remains such as pollen and spores, diatoms or chironomid head capsules, which are most commonly used for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions in non-marine settings. The calcitic remains of these micro-crustaceans are typically ca. 1 mm long, and abundant in the deposits of more or less stagnant and non-acidic water bodies. Thus, ostracod valves represent an important proxy to reconstruct landscape change or climate conditions in the past, and to infer relatively recent or more ancient human impacts on water bodies (von Grafenstein et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR34\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR33\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Parameswari et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR38\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Quante et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eReliable ostracod-based palaeoecological inferences can be provided if fossil ostracod assemblages include extant species, and if the modern distribution and ecological tolerance ranges of these taxa are well-known. In such cases, individual species may serve to indicate specific conditions such as the salinity or temperature of water bodies, the presence of macrophytes or the oxygenation of host waters. Furthermore, relative species-abundance data for modern assemblages and physicochemical data of the investigated water bodies recorded during sampling can be used to quantitatively estimate limnological parameters of ancient water bodies based on fossil assemblages (i.e., the transfer function approach; Viehberg \u003cspan citationid=\"CR53\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2006\u003c/span\u003e; Mezquita et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2005\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014a\u003c/span\u003e). The Near East is a region where such information of the modern ostracod distribution was and is extensively collected (Martens \u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1993\u003c/span\u003e; Martens and Ortal \u003cspan citationid=\"CR24\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e; Altınsa\u0026ccedil;lı and Griffiths \u003cspan citationid=\"CR4\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e; K\u0026uuml;lk\u0026ouml;yl\u0026uuml;oğlu \u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2004\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). The large number of studies in the region was probably at least partly triggered by the region\u0026rsquo;s rich history including the classical antiquity and much earlier periods of human activity back to periods of hominin migration out of Africa (Lev et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014b\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Kalbe et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Pint et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR39\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e; Shtienberg et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR48\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e; Bunin et al. 2023).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs one of the most prominent and rare freshwater lakes in the region, the Sea of Galilee received surprisingly little attention with respect to research on modern ostracods (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e). A single, systematic study was conducted in the 1960s by Lerner Seggev (1968), and a few but almost exclusively near-shore samples from the lake were included in the ostracod-based transfer function of Mischke et al. (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR29\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014a\u003c/span\u003e). In contrast, many small water bodies both near and at various distances from the lake were sampled and their ostracod assemblages examined in the latter study.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe Sea of Galilee is a warm-monomictic lake with a surface of 167 km\u0026sup2; at an altitude of ca. 211 m below sea level and a corresponding maximum water depth of 43 m (Nishri et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e). The lake is mainly fed by the Jordan River from the north (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e). Water in the lake is only slightly oligohaline (almost freshwater, total dissolved solids ca. 700\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;100 mg/L) and its pH is ca. 8.6 (Nishri et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e; Stiller et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR51\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2009\u003c/span\u003e). Rising temperatures following the winters cause not only a stable thermal stratification of the water from mid-May to late December but also seasonally occurring anoxia in the deeper part of the lake reaching up to ca. 18 m water depth (Nishri et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e; Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). Strong, mostly westerly winds drive counterclockwise currents in the central part of the lake and two smaller clockwise gyres in the north and south (Pan et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR37\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2002\u003c/span\u003e; Marti and Imberger \u003cspan citationid=\"CR25\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLocation of the Sea of Galilee in the Levant, A General location in the eastern Mediterranean Sea region, B Location in northern Israel\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe lake is mostly surrounded by Pliocene basalts in the east, north and the lower catchment in the west, and Upper Cretaceous to Eocene limestones in the upper catchment in the west. Holocene unconsolidated sediments are located near the shores and in the outlet region in the south of the lake (Sneh et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR50\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e). The lake basin is part of the north-south trending Dead Sea Transform (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMean annual precipitation at Tiberias on the lake\u0026rsquo;s western shore is 403 mm with most of the rainfall arriving in December to February. Mean annual, January and July temperatures are 20.5\u0026deg;C, 11.8\u0026deg;C and 27.7\u0026deg;C, respectively (period 1991\u0026ndash;2021; climate-data.org). Vegetation occurs as Maquis and Batha shrublands and is dominated by \u003cem\u003eQuercus ithaburensis\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eQ. boisseri\u003c/em\u003e, (deciduous oaks), \u003cem\u003eQ. calliprinos\u003c/em\u003e, (evergreen oak), and \u003cem\u003eOlea europaea\u003c/em\u003e (olive; Danin \u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1988\u003c/span\u003e). However, the catchment vegetation is strongly altered on lower slopes and relatively flat regions to grow olives, citrus fruits, mangoes, apples, grapes, dates and bananas. In addition to intensive agriculture on fields in the lake\u0026rsquo;s vicinity, human impacts on the lake also result from the city of Tiberias and numerous smaller municipalities around the lake, and the large-scale diversion of water (started in the 1960s) from the lake via the National Water Carrier of Israel, a system to distribute water from the Sea of Galilee to many parts of Israel including regions as far south as Be\u0026rsquo;er Sheva in the Negev Desert, southern Israel. However, water diversion from the lake diminished in the last decade due to the increasing water supply from desalination plants in the Mediterranean Sea. The lake level is controlled by a weir at its outlet of the lower Jordan River in the south. In addition, water from saline springs, mostly along the western shore of the lake but also within the lake, is partly diverted to the lower Jordan River downstream of the lake. The lake is also heavily used for fishing and recreational activities (Shapiro et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2022\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBathymetry of the Sea of Galilee and sampling locations (A; T Tiberias); saturation of dissolved oxygen of surface waters and bottom waters at different locations in the lake during the fieldwork period (B); and mean monthly concentrations of dissolved oxygen at different water depths measured at Station A in the deepest part of the lake in 1986 (Nishri et al., \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e; C)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo further improve the knowledge of the modern distribution of ostracods in the region, we investigated sediments collected from the floor of the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel. The lake was chosen as target location due to (1) its ecological importance as the only quasi freshwater lake in Israel, (2) the many already discovered and yet to be discovered archaeological sites with fossil ostracod records in the areas nearby (Almogi-Labin et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1995\u003c/span\u003e; Bridgland et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Lev et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014b\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Kalbe et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Rech et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Rabinovich et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Al-Saqarat et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Bunin et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e), (3) the possibility of examining changes in the ostracod assemblage since the first systematic study, carried out in the 1960s by Lerner-Seggev (\u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e), and (4) the chance to assess the degree of post-mortem transport of ostracod valves in the lake afforded by the presence of a seasonally expanding/contracting anoxic zone in the deeper part of the lake where valves are not likely to be in-situ remains (Nishri et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR36\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThus, the following research questions were addressed:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(1) Which ostracod taxa occur in the Sea of Galilee; which taxa dominate, and which taxa are rare?\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(2) Was the ostracod faunal assemblage of the lake significantly altered due to human activities since the 1960s?\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(3) Are ostracod valves transported by currents and waves to the seasonally anoxic zone of the lake?\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Material and methods","content":"\u003cp\u003eSurface sediment samples from the lake floor were collected in January 2012 from 68 locations in the lake with an Ekman-Birge mud grab (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). Sediment was placed into a bowl and immediately examined for living ostracods by naked eye and using a portable Nikon 20x field stereoscopic microscope. Then, sediments from the uppermost 1 cm were scraped off and stored in plastic bottles at 4\u0026deg;C until further processing in the lab. A subsample of 100 mL per sample was washed through sieves (100, 250 and 1000 \u0026micro;m), sieve residues dried at 50\u0026deg;C in a drying oven and distributed on a 9 x 5 cm picking tray to pick ostracod valves and carapaces under an Olympus SZ60 microscope. Well-preserved, adult and clean specimens were selected and documented using a Zeiss Supra 40 VP scanning electron microscope at Free University of Berlin (Germany).\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Results","content":"\u003cp\u003eIn total, 6295 ostracod valves and 1053 carapaces were recorded in the 68 samples from the lake (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e). Two samples from 37.3 and 39.6 m water depth did not contain ostracod remains (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e). The highest abundance in a sample was recorded at a location near Haon Beach at the southeastern shore with 0.3 m water depth which yielded 393 valves and 21 carapaces (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e). The ostracod assemblage from the Sea of Galilee includes 15 taxa with \u003cem\u003eCyprideis torosa\u003c/em\u003e representing the dominating taxon (valves and carapaces represent 82% of the assemblage; Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e, Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, Electronic Supplementary Material ESM 1). Specimens with nodes (\u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003elittoralis\u003c/em\u003e) and those without (\u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003etorosa\u003c/em\u003e) represent 56 and 26% of the assemblage, respectively (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e). \u003cem\u003eIlyocypris hartmanni\u003c/em\u003e is the second most abundant taxon (6%), followed by \u003cem\u003eIlyocypris nitida\u003c/em\u003e (4%; Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e). \u003cem\u003ePotamocypris\u003c/em\u003e cf. \u003cem\u003emastigophora\u003c/em\u003e was recorded with four valves in total at three locations, and \u003cem\u003eCandonopsis kingsleii\u003c/em\u003e with a single valve (Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e). Living specimens of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003etorosa\u003c/em\u003e were recorded at three locations close to the mouth of the Jordan River and one spot near the southeastern shore of the lake (13 specimens in total). Living specimens of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003elittoralis\u003c/em\u003e were recorded at eight locations (10 specimens in total; Fig.\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Fig3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e). In addition, one living specimen of \u003cem\u003eNeglecandona angulata\u003c/em\u003e was found, occurring also in a sample collected close to the mouth of the Jordan River.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe ostracod assemblage in the Sea of Galilee: the 2012 data\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ostracod assemblage of the lake is clearly dominated by \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e which accounts for ca. four fifths of the total assemblage. However, only four samples exclusively included valves and/or carapaces of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e. The noded and smooth forms of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e do not show a systematic distributional pattern in the Sea of Galilee. Both occur over the full depth range from shallowest locations (0.3 m) down to 32 m depth where ostracod remains were recorded. However, abundances of the smooth form \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003elittoralis\u003c/em\u003e are significantly higher above a water depth of ca. 12 m in comparison to deeper locations, possibly as a result of the larger influence of saline springs at the lake shores and littoral locations within the lake (Frenzel et al. \u003cspan\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Fig. \u003cspan\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e). \u003cem\u003eIlyocypris hartmanni\u003c/em\u003e reaches higher abundances in a moderate depth range of ca. 5\u0026ndash;12 m. The other member of the genus, \u003cem\u003eI\u003c/em\u003e. cf. \u003cem\u003enitida\u003c/em\u003e, shows higher numbers in shallow waters of 5 m and less, and also in a range between 14\u0026ndash;18 m.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNumber of ostracod remains and living specimens in surface samples from the Sea of Galilee. Number of valves (A); number of carapaces (B, bubble size similar to those in A with a carapace representing two valves); number of taxa (C); portion of noded \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e in relation to all \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e (D); specimens of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003etorosa\u003c/em\u003e (orange) and \u003cem\u003eN. angulata\u003c/em\u003e (green) collected alive (E); and specimens of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003elittoralis\u003c/em\u003e collected alive (F); white crosses in A and B indicate absence\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn contrast, abundances of \u003cem\u003eDarwinula stevensoni\u003c/em\u003e are typically higher in the intermediate depth range from 5\u0026ndash;15 m. \u003cem\u003eNeglecandona angulata\u003c/em\u003e occurs over the full depth range where ostracod remains were recorded but higher abundances were recorded only at a few locations in a range of 16\u0026ndash;25 m. \u003cem\u003eHumphcypris subterranea\u003c/em\u003e was more sporadically recorded, mostly in shallower waters down to 8 m. Highest abundances were found in the delta region of the Jordan River at the northern lake shore, likely indicating that the species not only prefers springs and streams flowing from springs but flowing waters in general (Hartmann \u003cspan\u003e1964\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan\u003e2014a\u003c/span\u003e). A somewhat similar pattern (shallow water depth, higher abundance in the delta region of the Jordan River) is observed for \u003cem\u003eCypridopsis vidua\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eIsocypris beauchampi\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ePseudocandona\u003c/em\u003e sp. (Figs. \u003cspan\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e). Valves and carapaces of these taxa possibly and at least partly originated from the flowing waters on the Jordan River fan. In contrast, \u003cem\u003eHeterocypris salina\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHerpetocypris\u003c/em\u003e sp., \u003cem\u003eP.\u003c/em\u003e cf. \u003cem\u003emastigophora\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eC. kingsleii\u003c/em\u003e were recorded predominantly or exclusively near the southeastern margin of the lake which is shallow with a relatively flat lake floor and dense emerged vegetation of reeds and sedges near and on the shore. \u003cem\u003eLoxoconcha galilea\u003c/em\u003e, only reported from the modern lake and the lake\u0026rsquo;s deposits of last glacial maximum (LGM) age so far, was found at only three widely-spaced locations at depths between 5\u0026ndash;16 m (Figs. \u003cspan\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e\u0026ndash;\u003cspan\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e; Lerner-Seggev \u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan\u003e2014a\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOf the 15 taxa recorded in our survey, seven species (\u003cem\u003eP\u003c/em\u003e. cf. \u003cem\u003emastigophora\u003c/em\u003e as \u003cem\u003eP. producta\u003c/em\u003e, a younger synonym) were already reported from the Sea of Galilee in the study by Lerner-Seggev (\u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e). A few, poorly preserved and thus, not thoroughly examined specimens of \u003cem\u003eCandona\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eCandonopsis\u003c/em\u003e were noted by Lerner-Seggev (\u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e) too. These likely correspond to specimens identified from the 2012 materials as \u003cem\u003eNeglecandona angulata\u003c/em\u003e (species formerly assigned to \u003cem\u003eCandona\u003c/em\u003e and recently combined with \u003cem\u003eNeglecandona\u003c/em\u003e; Meisch et al. \u003cspan\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e), as \u003cem\u003ePseudocandona\u003c/em\u003e sp. (with many species formerly assigned to \u003cem\u003eCandona\u003c/em\u003e and combined with \u003cem\u003ePseudocandona\u003c/em\u003e in the 1970s and later on; Danielopol \u003cspan\u003e1973\u003c/span\u003e; Meisch \u003cspan\u003e2000\u003c/span\u003e), and as \u003cem\u003eCandonopsis kingsleii\u003c/em\u003e. Assuming these three taxa were recorded by Lerner-Seggev (\u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e), only \u003cem\u003eH. subterranea\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eH\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cem\u003esalina\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eC\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cem\u003evidua\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eHerpetocypris\u003c/em\u003e sp. and \u003cem\u003eI\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cem\u003ebeauchampi\u003c/em\u003e were apparently not identified in the study from the 1960s. These five taxa were mostly recorded in the Jordan River delta region or near the southeastern shore of the lake which were not included in the littoral samples or two depth transects of Lerner-Seggev (\u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e). Thus, the higher number of taxa recorded in the 2012 survey probably results from the higher number of samples collected all over the lake rather than because of recent introductions to the lake. The comparability of both studies is also limited due to the use of dip nets in littoral areas and an Emery-type grab and Ockelman dredge at larger depth in the 1960s, and an Ekman-Birge grab in 2012. Lerner-Seggev (\u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e) stated that the results of her \u0026ldquo;research are qualitative\u0026rdquo; whilst specimens per 100 mL of surface mud were counted in the newly conducted study. However, taxa recorded in the 1960s were all identified in the 2012 material too, suggesting that the ostracod assemblage of the Sea of Galilee did not experience significant changes. This inference is surprising, given the large variations in the volume of water extracted from the lake via the National Water Carrier of Israel and the resulting lake-level and water-chemistry changes, and the significant changes in the nitrogen and phosphorus fluxes in the lake during recent decades (Nishri and Hamilton \u003cspan\u003e2010\u003c/span\u003e; Rimmer and Nishri \u003cspan\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Gophen \u003cspan\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDetailed data for the distribution of the recorded ostracod taxa in the Sea of Galilee. Panels are arranged with most abundant taxon to the upper left and least abundant to the lower right (note the three different abundance scales). Taxa codes in Table \u003cspan\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComparison of the data for 2012 with the ostracod assemblage from the last ice age\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough clearly dominant in the 2012 samples, \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e is even more abundant in the ice-age sediment samples collected from the archaeological site Ohalo-II at the southwestern shore of the lake in comparison to the accompanying taxa (Figs. \u003cspan\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e). Noded specimens of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e are significantly less abundant in the Ohalo deposits, indicating that conditions were probably more brackish in the LGM lake (Frenzel et al. \u003cspan\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e). However, drier conditions are not necessarily implied for the LGM due to the well-documented precipitation-driven higher discharge of saline brines from deep sources in the Sea of Galilee region and the resulting direct relationship between catchment precipitation and lake salinity (Goldschmidt et al. \u003cspan\u003e1967\u003c/span\u003e; Gvirtzman et al. \u003cspan\u003e1997\u003c/span\u003e; Rimmer et al. \u003cspan\u003e1999\u003c/span\u003e). Higher precipitation in the region during the LGM was recently inferred from another archaeological site at the Jordan River upstream of the Sea of Galilee which confirmed earlier reconstructions of highest lake levels in the Dead Sea Basin (Torfstein et al. \u003cspan\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e; Rice et al. \u003cspan\u003e2023\u003c/span\u003e; Bunin et al. \u003cspan\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). However, there are a few additional ostracod taxa recorded at Ohalo-II which were not found in samples from 2012. Among them are typical freshwater species such as \u003cem\u003eGomphocythere ortali\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eCandona candida\u003c/em\u003e and other species commonly found at slightly more brackish locations such as \u003cem\u003eSarscypridopsis aculeata\u003c/em\u003e or \u003cem\u003eNeglecandona neglecta\u003c/em\u003e (Fig. \u003cspan\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e). In addition, valves of \u003cem\u003ePrionocypris zenkeri\u003c/em\u003e had been recorded at Ohalo-II, a species typically occurring in slowly flowing streams with dense aquatic vegetation (Meisch \u003cspan\u003e2000\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComparison of mean relative species abundance data for the ostracod assemblage from the Sea of Galilee in 2012 and that of the trench samples from the archaeological site Ohalo-II at the southwestern shore of the lake, dated to ca. 23 ka. (only samples with a minimum of 50 valves (disarticulated and articulated) included)\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese additional species, although recorded with very low numbers, probably result from the larger number of samples investigated for the LGM location, the integrated record of ca. 5 ka duration, from ca. 25\u0026thinsp;\u0026minus;\u0026thinsp;20 ka, and the proximity of the shore and transport of ostracods into the lake from nearby springs and streams (Fig. \u003cspan\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan\u003e2014a\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAssessment of post-mortem transport of ostracod remains to the seasonally anoxic zone of the lake\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe numbers of recorded ostracod valves and carapaces per 100 mL of collected surface sediment vary over a large range at a lake depth of 18 m and shallower (range, average and standard deviation for valves: 4-393, 120, 109; for carapaces: 0\u0026ndash;73, 20, 20; Fig. \u003cspan\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e). In contrast, valves and carapaces are significantly less abundant at lake depths larger than 18 m (range, average and standard deviation for valves: 0\u0026ndash;42, 6, 10; for carapaces: 0\u0026ndash;4, 1, 1). This distributional pattern with a relatively abrupt change at ca. 18 m depth suggests that most of the benthic environment of the hypolimnion, the seasonally anoxic lake floor beneath 18 m depth, is not occupied by living ostracods during the period of water-column mixing in winter. A homogenous water temperature in the water column of the Sea of Galilee and mixing typically occur from mid-December to mid-March but weather conditions may shorten or extend this period to ca. three weeks or four months, respectively (Nishri et al. \u003cspan\u003e1998\u003c/span\u003e). The observed significant change in the numbers of ostracod remains at 18 m depth corresponds to the position of the thermocline in the lake, reported to occur between 17\u0026ndash;19 m (Marti and Imberger \u003cspan\u003e2008\u003c/span\u003e; Imberger and Marti \u003cspan\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e). However, one live specimen of \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e f. \u003cem\u003elittoralis\u003c/em\u003e was recorded at 19 m and two animals at 22 m lake depth during the sampling campaign in January 2012 in the northern part of the lake (Fig. \u003cspan\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e). Thus, the uppermost part of the lake floor beneath the thermocline might be here and there inhabited by ostracods due to the shorter duration of anoxic conditions at shallower water depth (Fig. \u003cspan\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). Alternatively, the colder inflowing waters of the Jordan River possibly cause an underflow of well-oxygenated waters in this region of the lake, supporting ostracods at a lake depth which is typically not oxic in regions more distal from the river delta. In general, the paucity of ostracod valves and carapaces on the lake floor below the depth of the thermocline provide evidence that most of these valves and carapaces were transported to the hypolimnion of the Sea of Galilee by wind-driven currents and waves. Valves were absent at only two of the 68 sampling locations with lake depths of 37.3 and 39.6 m, situated in the central and deepest part of the lake (Fig. \u003cspan\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). In contrast, carapaces were not recorded at ten locations including a single position above the thermocline, located at 1.8 m depth near the northeastern shore of the lake (Fig. \u003cspan\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e). The lower abundance of carapaces below the thermocline in comparison to valves shows that the lighter and relatively disc- or bowl-shaped disarticulated valves are apparently more efficiently transported over longer distances by currents. Studies by Reyment (\u003cspan\u003e1960\u003c/span\u003e), Kilenyi (\u003cspan\u003e1971\u003c/span\u003e) and Kontrovitz (\u003cspan\u003e1975\u003c/span\u003e) suggested that ostracod valves are probably less easily mobilized than carapaces by currents but once brought into suspension, may travel longer distances than carapaces. Zhai et al. (\u003cspan\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e) and Mao et al. (\u003cspan\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e) recognized that the post-mortem transport of especially juvenile ostracod valves is significant in three large brackish lakes on the Mongolian Plateau in Inner Mongolia (Northern China) and a freshwater lake in the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang (Northwestern China). Their lakes are all shallower than 14 m, and a similar post-mortem dispersal may apply, especially for juvenile valves in the shallower parts of the Sea of Galilee. However, the paucity of valves and carapaces in the surface deposits of the Sea of Galilee at greater depth shows that reworking and transport of ostracod remains to the more central and deeper part of the lake is insignificant. Thus, ostracod valves from locations in lake basins unaffected by most-mortem transport represent the local habitat characteristics as the main control of the recovered species-assemblage composition unless the specific basin is affected by conditions such as frequent mass movements (Wirth et al. \u003cspan\u003e2011\u003c/span\u003e; Simonneau et al. \u003cspan\u003e2013\u003c/span\u003e).\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv\u003e\n \u003ctable id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eOstracod taxa from the Sea of Galilee with numbers of animals collected alive, valves, carapaces and locations the taxon was found (total number of locations: 68)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/caption\u003e\n \u003ccolgroup cols=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\n \u003cthead\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eTaxon\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCode\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAnimals\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eValves\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCarapaces\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSampling locations\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/thead\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCyprideis torosa\u003c/em\u003e forma \u003cem\u003etorosa\u003c/em\u003e (Jones, 1850)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCtorft\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3842\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e421\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e63\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCyprideis torosa\u003c/em\u003e forma \u003cem\u003elittoralis\u003c/em\u003e (Jones, 1850)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCtorfl\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1235\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e446\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e63\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIlyocypris hartmanni\u003c/em\u003e Lerner-Seggev, \u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIhar\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e412\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e48\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e41\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIlyocypris\u003c/em\u003e cf. \u003cem\u003enitida\u003c/em\u003e Lerner-Seggev, \u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIcfn\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e293\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e25\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e35\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDarwinula stevensoni\u003c/em\u003e (Brady \u0026amp; Robertson, 1870)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eDste\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e124\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e68\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e33\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eNeglecandona angulata\u003c/em\u003e (G.W. M\u0026uuml;ller, 1900)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eNang\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e245\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e41\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHumphcypris subterranea\u003c/em\u003e (Hartmann, \u003cspan\u003e1964\u003c/span\u003e)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eHsub\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e58\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLimnocythere inopinata\u003c/em\u003e (Baird, 1843)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eLino\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e22\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e19\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHeterocypris salina\u003c/em\u003e (Brady, 1868)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eHsal\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e23\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCypridopsis vidua\u003c/em\u003e (O.F. M\u0026uuml;ller, 1776)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCvid\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eHerpetocypris\u003c/em\u003e sp.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eHerp\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eIsocypris beauchampi\u003c/em\u003e (Paris, 1920)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eIbea\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePseudocandona\u003c/em\u003e sp.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePseu\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eLoxoconcha galilea\u003c/em\u003e Lerner-Seggev, \u003cspan\u003e1968\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eLgal\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePotamocypris\u003c/em\u003e cf. \u003cem\u003emastigophora\u003c/em\u003e (M\u0026eacute;thuen, 1910)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003ePcfm\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eCandonopsis kingsleii\u003c/em\u003e (Brady \u0026amp; Robertson, 1870)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eCkin\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n \u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusions","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe conducted study of the ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee shows that the typical brackish water species \u003cem\u003eC. torosa\u003c/em\u003e dominates even though the lake is only slightly oligohaline, and that there are 14 additional accompanying taxa of which the more abundant species were already recorded in a previous study of the lake\u0026rsquo;s fauna in the 1960s. Sampling procedures were different for these two surveys but the available evidence suggests that the lake\u0026rsquo;s ostracod assemblage remained virtually unchanged over the last 50 years or so. Very few ostracod remains were observed from greater than the summer-thermocline depth, and thus, from the zone of seasonal anoxia, providing evidence for the insignificant post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains to the deeper central part of the lake. This observation suggests that palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstructions based on ostracod records are reliable and not significantly biased by the post-mortem relocation of valves or carapaces if sediment cores were recovered from depths unaffected by post-mortem transport and seasonal or permanent anoxia.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eVery few living ostracods were recorded in our survey and a different study design (for example, other sampling approaches including net sampling or the collection of short sediment cores, sampling during different seasons) will be required to improve the knowledge on the distribution of the living fauna in the lake.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArchaeological sites related to former water bodies are numerous not only in the larger region including Jordan (e.g., Hamra Faddan, Jurf ed Darawish, Wadi Gharandal, Wadi Hasa) or Syria (e.g., Ghab Basin, Nadaouiyeh A\u0026iuml;n Askar) but also in the close vicinity of the Sea of Galilee including the Erq el Ahmar Elephant Site with an estimated age of \u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;2 Ma, the Acheulian \u0026lsquo;Ubeidiya and Gesher Benot Ya\u0026rsquo;qov sites, the Middle Paleolithic Nahal Mahanayeem Outlet, the Upper Paleolithic/Epipaleolithic Ohalo II, and the Epipalaeolithic Jordan River Dureijat (Almogi-Labin et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR1\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e1995\u003c/span\u003e; Bridgland et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2012\u003c/span\u003e; Lev et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR21\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014\u003c/span\u003e; Mischke et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2014b\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR32\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2021\u003c/span\u003e; Kalbe et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR16\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2015\u003c/span\u003e, \u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2016\u003c/span\u003e; Rech et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2017\u003c/span\u003e; Rabinovich et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2019\u003c/span\u003e; Al-Saqarat et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR2\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2020\u003c/span\u003e; Bunin et al. \u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e2024\u003c/span\u003e). Fossil ostracods were reported from all these sites, and some of the locations are currently newly excavated. The presented distribution of the ostracod species in the Sea of Galilee will serve as a useful reference in comparison to the fossil ostracod assemblages from such excavations and will allow the assessment of Pleistocene water bodies which supported human activities in the region since the early Pleistocene.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn addition, our study also provides a reference for the future assessment of the Sea of Galilee\u0026rsquo;s state in times of climate change and increasing pressures on the ecosystem due to human impacts.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAcknowledgements\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe thank Ami Nishri, Marieke Ahlborn, Johannes Kalbe and Michael Kitin for help during fieldwork.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003cstrong\u003eFunding declaration\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFunding was provided by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant Mi 730/13-1) to SM, the Israel Science Foundation (Grant No. 1663/16) to AA-L and\u0026nbsp;the BSF US-Israel Binational Science Foundation (Award 2010347) to AA-L and EI.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting interest declaration\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare that there are no competing interests.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAlmogi-Labin A, Siman-Tov R, Rosenfeld A, Debard E (1995) Occurrence and distribution of the foraminifer \u003cem\u003eAmmonia beccarii tepida\u003c/em\u003e (Cushman) in water bodies, recent and Quaternary, of the Dead Sea rift, Israel. Mar Micropaleontol 26:153-159\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAl-Saqarat BS, Abbas M, Lai Z, Gong S, Alkuisi MM, Abu Hamad AMB, Carling PA, Jansen JD (2020) A wetland oasis at Wadi Gharandal spanning 125\u0026ndash;70 ka on the human migration trail in southern Jordan. Quat Res 100:154-169\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAl-Shdaifat A, Al-Saqarat B, Abbas M (2016) An ancient wetland in the presently arid region of southern Jordan: a sedimentological and paleoenvironmental study. Res J Environ Earth Sci 8:13-24\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAltınsa\u0026ccedil;lı S, Griffiths HI (2002) A review of the occurrence and distribution of the recent non-marine Ostracoda (Crustacea) of Turkey. Zool Middle East 27:61-76\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBridgland DR, Westaway R, Romieh MA, Candy I, Daoud M, Demir T, Galiatsatos N, Schreve DC, Seyrek A, Shaw AD, White TS, Whittaker J (2012) The River Orontes in Syria and Turkey: downstream variation of fluvial archives in different crustal blocks. Geomorphology 165-166:25-49\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eBunin E, Zhang C, Sharon G, Mischke S (2024) Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Jordan River Dureijat archeological site reveal subtle late Pleistocene water‑level changes at Lake Hula, Jordan Valley, Israel. J Paleolimnol 71:19-43\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDanielopol DL (1973) Sur la morphologie des aesthetases chez quelques Ostracodes hypog\u0026eacute;s de la sous-famille des Candoninae (Cyprididae, Podocopidae). Annales de Sp\u0026eacute;l\u0026eacute;ologie 28:233-245\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDanin A (1988) Flora and vegetation of Israel and adjacent areas. In: Yom Tov Y, Tchernov E (eds) The Zoogeography of Israel. Junk Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 129-159\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFrenzel P, Schulze I, Pint A (2012) Noding of \u003cem\u003eCyprideis torosa\u003c/em\u003e valves (Ostracoda) \u0026ndash; a proxy for salinity? New data from field observations and a long-term microcosm experiment. 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Hydrobiologia 747:1-18\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e"},{"header":"Electronic Supplementary Material ESM 1","content":"\u003cp\u003eElectronic Supplementary Material ESM 1 is not available with this version\u003c/p\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"journal-of-paleolimnology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"jopl","sideBox":"Learn more about [Journal of Paleolimnology](http://link.springer.com/journal/10933)","snPcode":"10933","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10933/3","title":"Journal of Paleolimnology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"Ostracoda, Crustacea, Taphonomy, Biodiversity, Lake Gennesaret, Near East","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4431221/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-4431221/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe Sea of Galilee is the one and only large freshwater or slightly oligohaline natural lake in the Levant, and it therefore represents an important aquatic habitat in the region that also provides invaluable ecosystem services for the local communities. To improve our knowledge of the lake\u0026rsquo;s ecosystem and the use of disarticulated ostracod valves and preserved carapaces, micro-crustacean remains commonly used in palaeolimnology and palaeoceanography, as proxies for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, and to examine the post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains, 68 surface-sediment samples were collected from the lake floor in 2012 and analysed for the ostracod assemblages. Both, the noded and smooth, forms of \u003cem\u003eCyprideis torosa\u003c/em\u003e dominate in the Sea of Galilee, with the former more abundant than the latter. Relatively abundant and found at half of the 68 sampling locations or more, are also \u003cem\u003eIlyocypris hartmanni\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eI\u003c/em\u003e. cf. \u003cem\u003enitida\u003c/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eDarwinula stevensoni\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eNeglecandona angulata\u003c/em\u003e. In addition, ten less abundant ostracod taxa were recorded in the lake. Of all 15 taxa recorded in our study, ten were apparently also recorded in a study of the Sea of Galilee\u0026rsquo;s ostracod fauna conducted already in the 1960s. The newly recorded five taxa are relatively rare, and they were mostly found in the region of the Jordan River delta or near the southeastern shore of the lake which were not included in the survey of the 1960s. Thus, there is no evidence for a significant change in the ostracod fauna of the lake over the last half-century. In comparison to the ostracod assemblage from a late Pleistocene archaeological excavation site at the southwestern margin of the lake, the assemblage from the recent survey is slightly less diverse, probably as a result of the long duration of ca. 5000 years integrated by the sedimentary section of the archaeological site and also due to nearby freshwater inflows from which valves and carapaces were probably washed to the site\u0026rsquo;s location. Our study also shows that ostracod valves and carapaces are typically relatively abundant in most of the surface-sediment samples collected from locations at 18 m or shallower. In contrast, very few valves and carapaces were recorded at depths greater than 18 m, which is a zone affected by seasonal anoxia in the Sea of Galilee. These few ostracod remains were apparently transported by currents and waves to the central, deeper part of the lake, but their low number shows that such post-mortem dispersal of ostracod remains is insignificant in the deeper part of the lake. Thus, our study provides support for palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstructions based on ostracod records from single sediment cores obtained from depths unaffected by post-mortem transport and seasonal or permanent anoxia.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"The ostracod distribution in the Sea of Galilee (Levant): species distribution and post-mortem dispersal of valves and carapaces","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-06-03 22:37:07","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-4431221/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2024-07-05T14:14:13+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2024-07-03T21:29:01+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2024-07-02T15:24:22+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"266820543032490223100054061477098374779","date":"2024-06-05T11:49:25+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"182792542151786601101738916860344755186","date":"2024-06-05T11:37:28+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2024-06-05T11:32:25+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2024-05-21T19:14:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2024-05-21T19:14:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Journal of Paleolimnology","date":"2024-05-16T12:58:25+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"journal-of-paleolimnology","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"jopl","sideBox":"Learn more about [Journal of Paleolimnology](http://link.springer.com/journal/10933)","snPcode":"10933","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/10933/3","title":"Journal of Paleolimnology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"em","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"6c6e0dd0-a99c-465e-bce6-9de89409f264","owner":[],"postedDate":"June 3rd, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-10-28T15:58:55+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-4431221","link":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-024-00346-8","journal":{"identity":"journal-of-paleolimnology","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Journal of Paleolimnology"},"publishedOn":"2024-10-26 15:56:59","publishedOnDateReadable":"October 26th, 2024"},"versionCreatedAt":"2024-06-03 22:37:07","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1007/s10933-024-00346-8","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-024-00346-8","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-4431221","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-4431221","identity":"rs-4431221","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}