Reply to Discussion: a critique of Possible waterways between the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea in the late Quaternary: evidence from ostracod and foraminifer assemblages in lakes İznik and Sapanca, Turkey, Geo-Marine Letters, 2011

In their discussion of our 2011 paper dealing with possible waterways between the Marmara Sea and the Black Sea in the “late” Quaternary, based on data from ostracod and foraminifer assemblages in lakes İznik and Sapanca, Turkey, Yaltırak et al. (Geo-Mar Lett 32:267–274, 2012 ) essentially reject the idea of any links whatsoever, be they between the Marmara Sea and the lakes İznik and Sapanca, or further to the Black Sea via the valley of the Sakarya River. The evidence they provide in support of their view, however, is essentially circumstantial, in part conjectural, and also inconclusive considering the findings in favour of linkage between the Marmara Sea and the lakes at the very least, while the proposed connection with the Sakarya River valley remains speculative because of the lack of unambiguous data. On the other hand, Yaltırak et al. (Geo-Mar Lett 32:267–274, 2012 ) do raise valid points of concern which deserve careful future investigation, the most important being the possibility of sample contamination from dumped marine sediment used for construction purposes along some parts of the shore of Lake İznik. We agree that a concerted multidisciplinary effort is required to address the many unresolved issues in connection with the potential waterways proposed by us and others before us.