**3. Geological setting and limnology**

From a geologic point of view, Western Anatolia and the Aegean Regions represent a broad extensional zone [16], stretching from Bulgaria to the north to the Hellenic arc to the south [17]. The Western Anatolian region is characterized by several approximately E-W trending, subparallel, normal fault zones, bordering a set of grabens and intervening horst blocks. The Lake Bafa is located on the Büyük Menderes Graben zone [18], which is a seismically active depositional basin [19]. The graben was opened in the Paleozoic–Mesozoic rocks of the Menderes Massif and Lycian Nappes during the Early Miocene [19–21]. The catchment mainly consists of metamorphic bedrocks belonging to the Menderes Massif. The basin-fill deposits, partly Early Miocene lacustrine limestones and the overlying units of Pliocene and Quaternary clastics, overlie the bedrocks [19]. The Lake Bafa formed as an alluvial set lake in the Western Anatolia because of the closure of the ancient Latmos Gulf, caused by the delta progradation of the Büyük Menderes River [6, 16]. The Holocene deposits of the Büyük Menderes River form an alluvial delta plain, separating the Lake Bafa from the Aegean Sea at around A.D. 1500 [6, 22]. The present- day lacustrine basin is currently at 2 m above sea level (masl) (**Figure 1**). The modern basin of the lake has a surface area of 315 km2 , a volume of 692 hm3 , and a maximum depth of 20 m. The lake is oligo-mesotrophic with annual average values of total nitrogen 0.45 mg/L, total phosphorus 1.3 mg/L, and total dissolved oxygen 7.49 mg/L [23, 24]. Additional to surface inflows, the main recharging inlet is Büyük Menderes River [22, 25].

### **4. Lithostratigraphy**

Based on visual observations, such as lithology, color, water content, grain size distributions, and fossil content, sediment core and swamp section were subdivided into several lithostratigraphical units (BAF37, five litho-zones; BS, four litho-zones).
