Simona Avnaim-Katav

Simona Avnaim-Katav
Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research

PhD

About

46
Publications
15,834
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Citations
Introduction
I am a micropaleontologist utilizing my specialties in Geology, ecology, sea Level, climate and natural hazards studies. I've gained an extensive taxonomic and ecological knowledge on recent and fossil calcareous microorganisms (i.e., foraminifera), from different aquatic habitats. This includes deep-water, shallow continental shelf and marginal marine environments from contemporary to Quaternary world-wide environments (the Mediterranean, Asia and western US).
Additional affiliations
September 2017 - present
Israel Oceanographic and Limnological Research
Position
  • Researcher
September 2015 - August 2017
University of California, Los Angeles
Position
  • PostDoc Position
October 2013 - December 2013
Aix-Marseille University
Position
  • PostDoc Position

Publications

Publications (46)
Article
The River Nile catchment is considered the major source of nutrient-rich freshwater and sediment draining into the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Thus, exceptional high-resolution record from the Nile Littoral Cell likely traces changes in the Nile outflows related to climatic changes driven by the monsoonal system. This study used multi-proxy analyses...
Article
The Levantine Basin, the saltiest, hottest and the most ultra-oligotrophic basin in the Mediterranean Sea, continues to be affected by recent anthropogenic changes. That includes the long-term influence of the opening of the Suez Canal and the enhanced oligotrophy in this region due to the damming of the Nile River. This study explores the spatial...
Article
The foraminiferal order Carterinida is characterized by agglutinated tests consisting of calcareous spicules. Four species have so far been described from the tropical Pacific and the Caribbean Sea. We report here the first occurrence of Carterina from the Southeastern Levantine Shelf of the Mediterranean Sea. Based on molecular and morphological r...
Article
We report on the distribution of contemporary foraminifera in salt marshes in Mission Bay and Carpinteria Slough, Southern California. Combining these data with existing datasets from Seal Beach and Tijuana, we explore the potential for a regional training set to underpin quantitative reconstructions of paleoenvironmental change from foraminifera p...
Article
Full-text available
Footprints of human activities identified in the sedimentary sequence of submerged historical saltpans can reveal the history of the site and can indicate the relative sea level during its operational period. Saltpans are man-made constructions used continuously for salt production in the Mediterranean at least for the last 2000 years. The east Adr...
Article
Intertidal salt production sites existed continuously around the Mediterranean since classical antiquity, and their remains are present in large numbers along the Dalmatian (east Adriatic) coast. Most of them are preserved and dated to medieval times. This study aims to develop complementary proxies identifying the salt production layer in submerge...
Article
Full-text available
In the last two centuries, human activities have radically reduced the transport of suspended sediment and water to marine systems, mainly in the northern hemisphere, while complete sediment retention has been reported for the Nile River after the construction of the Aswan High Dam (AHD). Here, we focused on changes in the inner-shelf sediments mos...
Article
Full-text available
Planktonic Foraminifera are unique paleo-environmental indicators through their excellent fossil record in ocean sediments. Their distribution and diversity are affected by different environmental factors including anthropogenically forced ocean and climate change. Until now, historical changes in their distribution have not been fully assessed at...
Article
Full-text available
Recent excavations of Tel Yafo (Jaffa), Israel, underscore its role as an historically important Mediterranean port. In 2014, the Ioppa Maritima Project conducted a geological investigation determining that from ca. 5000–2000 years BP, a small estuarine system existed east and north of Tel Yafo that could have served as a harbour. The marine reentr...
Article
This study explores the role of the Nile River damming in shaping the recent benthic ecology in the southeastern Levantine (SL) Basin, the saltiest, hottest and the most oligotrophic basin within the Mediterranean Sea. The spatial distribution and diversity patterns of dead benthic foraminiferal (BF) faunas from the SL shelf were analyzed at 59 sta...
Article
Full-text available
We gathered total organic carbon (%) and relative abundances of benthic foraminifera in intertidal areas and transitional waters from the English Channel/European Atlantic Coast (587 samples) and the Mediterranean Sea (301 samples) regions from published and unpublished datasets. This database allowed to calculate total organic carbon optimum and t...
Article
This work contributes to the ongoing work aiming at confirming benthic foraminifera as a biological quality element. In this study, benthic foraminifera from intertidal and transitional waters from the English Channel/ European Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean Sea were assigned to five ecological groups using the weighted-averaging optimum with...
Article
Full-text available
Pollen, benthic foraminifera, diatoms, sediment grain size, and organic matter content from a 230-cm long-AMS dated sediment core (Core SB-51B) were used to reconstruct paleoenvironmental changes and paleoclimatic evolution within the Seal Beach wetland (southern California, USA), during the last~2000 years. A Q-mode cluster analysis based on diato...
Article
Sediment trap and core top sediments were used to study the seasonal and longer-term variability in the distribution and assemblage composition of planktonic foraminifera (PF) in the ultra-oligotrophic Eastern Mediterranean Levantine Basin (LB). Bi- monthly samples were retrieved from a sediment trap deployed at 1300 m between May 2017 and May 2018...
Article
The inner structure of multitaxonomic boxwork rhodoliths from a seabed located off of the Northern Israeli coast was explored as a tool to understand past depositional environments of the shallow littoral zone. Studied rhodoliths consist of superimposed, successive growth stages formed by different encrusting biota. The types of growth stages inclu...
Article
Full-text available
Paleoenvironmental records from a southern California coastal saltmarsh reveal evidence for repeated late Holocene coseismic subsidence events. Field analysis of sediment gouge cores established discrete lithostratigraphic units extend across the wetland. Detailed sediment analyses reveal abrupt changes in lithology, percent total organic matter, g...
Article
Salt-marsh foraminifera are frequently used around the world as proxies in paleoenvironmental studies of sea-level change. Quantitative reconstructions of sea-level change use transfer functions which are based on the vertical zonation of salt-marsh foraminifera with respect to the tidal frame. This paper explores for the first time the environment...
Article
A last interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage, MIS5e) marine-coastal sequence has been identified along the Galilee coast of Israel, with the type section located at Rosh Hanikra (RH). The microtidal regime and tectonic stability, along with the detailed stratigraphy of the RH shore, make the study region ideally suited for determining relative sea lev...
Article
The Holocene sequence of the Kebara wetlands, a groundwater-surface water interaction zone ecosystem, was studied in a borehole (Core A), retrieved from the eastern trough of the Carmel coast of Israel. A multi-proxy approach was used for environmental reconstruction, and new ages were added for reassessment of the chronology. The fauna (mainly ost...
Article
This paper presents new data looking into the Holocene evolution of the Kuban delta (Taman Peninsula, SW Russia), with particular emphasis on its southern arm. In the area of the later Taman Peninsula, the Holocene marine transgression created an archipelago around 6000. years ago. When sea-level rise decelerated, deltaic sedimentation and longshor...
Article
Full-text available
During Holocene sea-level rise, coastal areas became transitional environments as marine incursion covered the land. Changing conditions resulted in dynamic depositional environments that recorded the migration and stabilization of modern shorelines. These processes are viewed in the Zevulun Plain (Haifa Bay, Israel) record located in the northern...
Conference Paper
Salt-marsh foraminifera are proxies frequently used around the world in paleoenvironmental studies of sea-level change. Quantitative reconstructions of sea-level change use transfer functions which are based on the vertical zonation of salt-marsh foraminifera with respect to the tidal frame. This paper explores for the first time the environmental...
Conference Paper
Live and dead assemblages of foraminifera, ostracods and molluscs occurring in seven micro-tidal estuaries in the southeastern coast of the Levantine shelf (Israel) were analyzed and their ecological preferences and seasonal dynamics were determined. The reference baseline established was compared with two OSL dated cores extracted from the Tannini...
Article
Siliciclastic carbonate-poor sediments are common in southern and central parts of the inner Israeli shelf, part of the Nile littoral cell and in deeper water along the entire coast, while carbonate rich sediments occur in northern Israel and in submerged rocky environments. The distribution of benthic foraminifera, common components of these envir...
Article
This study presents the first in-depth analysis of properties, micromorphology, clay mineralogy, magnetic susceptibility, and general properties of Quaternary paleosols from two boreholes in Haifa Bay subsurface, whose chronostratigraphic position was determined previously. The current analytical results allowed us to identify the type, hydrologic...
Conference Paper
The sea level (SL) curves of the Mediterranean are based mainly on archaeological indicators such as: Fish ponds (Fig. 2) , water wells (Fig. 3), Submerged remains of Zea ancient harbour, Greece (Fig. 4), slipways of shipsheds (Fig. 5) etc. but also on bio-constructions like the Dendropoma petraeum fixed vermitids along the edge of the abrasion pla...
Article
Benthic and planktonic foraminifera were studied in inner shelf sedimentary sequences in Haifa Bay, Israel. Three boreholes, taken at water depths from 5 to 14 m, spanning about the last 1 Ma, and a set of modern sediment samples used as modern analogue, were utilized for reconstructing palaeoenvironments and palaeobathymetry. The palaeoenvironment...
Article
The current detailed chronostratigraphic framework of the last 1 Ma of an eastern Mediterranean sequence (Haifa Bay, Israel) aims to examine the relative roles of sea-level changes, climate and tectonics. Seven continuous marine cores, up to ∼120 m long, were recovered from shallow water depths. The cores were dated by optically stimulated luminesc...
Article
Quartz sand in the eastern Mediterranean coastal plain is supplied through an extended transport system, which includes the Nile River, east Mediterranean longshore currents, and inland eolian transport. While the concentrations of cosmogenic nuclides (26Al and 10Be), and their ratio, in modern sand deposited along the coast of the eastern Mediterr...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
A detailed chronostratigraphic framework and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Quaternary succession in the southern Haifa Bay, were established based on sedimentological and micropaleontological proxy records. Seven long marine cores, to 120 m, were analyzed for grain size, CaCO3, and petrography. Benthic foraminifera and ostracods were stu...
Conference Paper
Benthic foraminifera are sensitive recorders of environmental variability,reflecting climatically induced changes related to environment stability, variations in food flux and sea floor ventilation. In order to reconstruct the oceanographic/climate variability in the Levantine basin during the Holocene we studied two cores recovered by R/V Marion D...

Questions

Questions (5)
Question
Hello…
Any suggestions regarding identification of the following benthic foraminifera elphidium(?) species (attached) and their habitats/environments?
Best regards,
Simona
Question
Hello RG micropal. Researchers,
I need help with the identification of foraminifera –please find attached pic.
Here some info: recent sediments sampled from 100 m water depth in the SE Mediterranean.
Trochospiral:
-Spiral side is slightly convex with about 2 whorls (4-5 chambers in the last one) and seems smooth. Sutures depressed on both sides.
-The chambers on the umbilical side and periphery are perforate. Umbilical side is somewhat concave and with a noticeable wide open umbilicus and aperture which might resembles of Trochammina inflata (although not agglutinant).
Any suggestions?
Best,
Simona
Question
Dear colleagues,
How can I remove organics in the form of fecal pellets and mucus from deep water sediment-trap, without harming (dissolving, breaking…) carbonates (planktic foraminifera, pteropods) and silicates (diatoms, radiolarians) organisms?
I would appreciate any recommendation or if someone knows a protocol as reference.
Thank you!
Question
When choosing a WAPLS model, apart from relying on performance (e.g. r2, r, max bias, RMSEP, scatter-plot etc..), the recommendation is to select the successive component if the model performance increases by >5% measured by the cross validated RMSEP (e.g. Braak & Juggins, 1993; Birks, 1998; Brooks & Birks, 2000; Barlow et al., 2013).
 Does this rule apply also to PLS technique?    

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