In progress
Lapid G. and Torfstein A., Uranium isotopes and trace element distributions in atmospheric dust (in preparation)
Steiner Z., Benaltabet T. and Torfstein A., Dynamics of dissolved major cations in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea (in preparation)
Sosnitsky T., Krekova V., Elisha B., Sadekov A., Torfstein A., Abramovich S. and Ashckenazi-Polivoda S., Unmasking Textularia agglutinans: A Cosmopolitan Calcifying Benthic Foraminifera in Disguise and New Geochemical Recorder of Coastal Environments (submitted)
Kuzmenko A., Torfstein A., Hidy A., Geller Y., Vainer S. and Matmon A., New chronological constraints on the history of the Kalahari Group from the Upper Ugab Valley, Namibia (in review)
Mayfield K.K., Horner T.J., Torfstein A., Auro M.E., Gonneea M.E. and Paytan A., Barium cycling in the Gulf of Aqaba: An exceptionally unsaturated marine basin for barite (in revision)
2024
Torfstein A. and Hemming S.R., Geochronometry of Marine Deposits (in press, Treatise on Geochemistry 3rd edition)
Torfstein A. (2024) The Quaternary climate of Israel. In: Landscapes and Landforms of Israel, pp. 49-71, Springer International Publishing. pdf, link
Abadi I., Torfstein A., Friesem D.E., Languut D., Jin M., Rabinovitch R., Steiner T., Zurro D., Gur-Arieh S., Ovadia A., Goring-Morris A.N. (2024) Heinrich event 2 (ca. 24 ka BP) as a chrono-climatic anchor for the appearance of Epipaleolithic backed bladelets microlith industries in the Southern Levant. Quaternary Science Reviews 332 108649. pdf, link
Moshe N., Katz O., Torfstein A., Kanari M., Masque P. and Hyams-Kaphzan O. (2024) Glacial-Holocene variability in sediment accumulation and erosion along submarine blind canyons: a case study from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Marine Geology 469, 107217. pdf, link
Wang T., Yao P-H., Shen C-C., Chawchai S., Torfstein A., Sinha A., Xu H., Yu T.-L., Lin F., Wang X., Li D., Cheng H., Edwards R.L., An Z . and Tan L. (2024) Anthropogenically-induced atmospheric Pb cycle in low-latitude Asia since the Industrial Revolution recorded by high-resolution stalagmites. Global and Planetary Change 232, 104337. pdf, link
2023
Benaltabet T., Lapid G. and Torfstein A. (2023) Response of dissolved trace metals to dust storms, sediment resuspension and flash floods in the Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 37, e2023GB007858. link, Geotraces highlight
Goldsmith Y., Cohen O., Stein M., Torfstein A., Kiro Y., Kushnir Y., Bartov Y., Ben-Moshe L., Frumkin A., Lensky N., Keinan J., Gonen L. and Enzel Y. (2023) Holocene humid periods of the Levant – evidence from Dead Sea lake-levels. Quaternary Science Reviews 318, 108312. pdf, link
Wang J., Xu H., Lan J., Zhou K., Song Y., Zhang J., Tan L., Goldsmith Y., Torfstein A. and Enzel Y. (2023) Changes in SST regulate hydroclimatic patterns in the monsoon marginal zone, northern China. Climate Dynamics 61, 4551-4562. pdf, link
Levy N., Torfstein A., Schiebel R., Chernihovsky N., Jochum K.P., Weis U., Stoll B. and Haug G.H. (2023) Temperature calibration of high Mg-calcite planktic Foraminifera shells from the hypersaline Gulf of Aqaba. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 24, e2022GC010742. pdf, link
Chaabane et al. (2023) The FORCIS database: A global census of planktonic Foraminifera from ocean waters. Scientific data 10, 345. link
Chernihovsky N., Torfstein A. and Almogi-Labin A. (2023) Daily timescale dynamics of planktonic foraminifera shell-size distributions. Frontiers in Marine Science 10:1126398. link
Keuter S., Koplovitz G., Torfstein A. and Frada M. (2023) Two-year seasonality (2017, 2018), export and long-term changes in coccolithophore communities in the subtropical ecosystem of the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Deep-Sea Research Part I 191, 103919. pdf, link
2022
Kienast S.S. and Torfstein A. (2022) Evaluation of biological carbon pump metrics in the subtropical Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 36, e2022GB007452. pdf, link, ynet
Benaltabet T., Lapid G. and Torfstein A. (2022) Dissolved aluminum dynamics in response to dust storms, wet deposition, and sediment resuspension in the Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 335, 137-154. pdf, link, GEOTRACES highlight
Goldsmith Y., Xu H., Torfstein A., Lan J., Song Y., Zhang J., Zhou K., Cheng J. and Enzel Y. (2022) Abrupt contraction of the Indo-East Asian monsoons ended the Holocene Humid Period. Geophysical Research Letters 49, e2022GL100137. link
Tierney J.E., Torfstein A. and Bhattacharya T. (2022) Late Quaternary hydroclimate of the Levant: the leaf wax record from the Dead Sea. Quaternary Science Reviews 289, 107613. pdf, link
Hoober L., Titelboim D., Abramovich S., Herut B., Teutsch N., Benaltabet T. and Torfstein A. (2022) Establishing baseline assessment levels for monitoring coastal heavy metals using foraminiferal shells: A case study from the Southeastern Mediterranean. Water 14, 1352. pdf, link
Banc-Prandi G., Baharier N., Benaltabet T., Torfstein A., Antler G. and Fine M. (2022) Elevated temperatures reduce the resilience of the Red Sea branching coral styllophora pistillata to copper pollution. Aquatic Toxicology 244, 106096. pdf, link
2021
Benaltabet T., Gunter-Hoch E. and Torfstein A. (2021) Heavy metal, rare earth element and Pb isotope dynamics in mussels during a depuration experiment in the Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea. Frontiers in Marine Science 8, 669329. link.
Weinstein D., Tamir R., Kramer N., Eyal G., Berenshtein I., Shaked Y., Loya Y. and Torfstein A. (2021) Mesophotic reef geomorphology categorization, habitat identification, and relationships with surface cover and terrace origins in the Gulf of Aqaba. Geomorphology 379, 107547. pdf, link
Zhang S., Xu H., Lan J., Goldsmith Y., Torfstein A., Zhang G., Zhang J., Song Y., Zhou K., Tan L., Xu S., Xu X. and Enzel Y. (2021) Dust storms in northern China during the last 500 years. Science China Earth Sciences 64, 813-824. pdf, link.
Titelboim D., Sadekov A., Blumenfeld M., Almogi-Labin A., Herut B., Halicz L., Benaltabet T., Torfstein A., Kuceara M. and Abramovich S. (2021) Monitoring of heavy metals in seawater using single chamber foraminiferal sclerochronology. Ecological Indicators 120, 106931. pdf, link
Horner et al. (2021) Bioactive Trace Metals and Their Isotopes as Paleoproductivity Proxies: An Assessment Using GEOTRACES-Era Data. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 35, e2020GB006814. link (Torfstein is part of the GEOTRACES-PAGES Biological Productivity Working Group)
Farmer et al. (2021) Assessment of C, N, and Si isotopes as tracers of past ocean nutrient and carbon cycling. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 35, e2020GB006775. link (Torfstein is part of the GEOTRACES-PAGES Biological Productivity Working Group)
2020
Benaltabet T., Lapid G. and Torfstein A. (2020) Seawater Pb concentration and isotopic composition response to daily time scale dust storms in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Marine Chemistry 227, 103895. pdf, link
Chernihovsky N., Almogi-Labin A., Kienast S.S. and Torfstein A. (2020) The daily resolved temperature dependence and structure of planktonic foraminifera blooms. Scientific Reports 10(1), 1-12. link
Torfstein A., Kienast S.S., Rivlin A., Isaacs S., Yarden B. and Shaked Y. (2020) Bulk and export production fluxes in the Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea. ACS Earth and Space Chemistry 4(8), 1461-1479. pdf, link, Calcalist
Torfstein A. and Steinberg J. (2020) The Oligo-Miocene closure of the Tethys Ocean and evolution of the proto-Mediterranean Sea. Scientific Reports 10, 13817. link
Hartman A., Torfstein A. and Almogi-Labin A. (2020) Climate swings in the northern Red Sea over the last 150,000 years from εNd and Mg/Ca of marine sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews 231, 106205. link, pdf
Zhang J., Xu H., Lan J., Ai L., Sheng E., Yan D., Zhou K., Yu K., Song Y., Zhang S. and Torfstein A. (2020) Weakening dust-storm intensity in arid Central Asia due to global warming over the past 160 years. Frontiers in Earth Science 8, 284. link
Goldstein S.L., Kiro Y., Torfstein A., Kitagawa H., Tierney J. and Stein M. (2020) Revised chronology of the ICDP Dead Sea deep drill core relates drier-wetter-drier climate cycles to insolation over the past 220 kyr. Quaternary Science Reviews 244, 106460. pdf
Costa et al. (2020) 230Th normalization: New insights on an essential tool for quantifying sedimentary fluxes in the modern and Quaternary ocean. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology 35, 1-36 . link
2019
Palchan D. and Torfstein A. (2019) A drop in Sahara dust fluxes records the northern limits of the African Humid Period. Nature Communications 10:3803. link
Tzafriri-Milo R., Benaltabet T., Torfstein A. and Shenkar N. (2019) The potential use of invasive ascidians for biomonitoring heavy metal pollution. Frontiers in Marine Science 6, 1-17. link
Torfstein A. (2019) Climate cycles in the southern Levant and their global climatic connections. Quaternary Science Reviews 221, 105881. pdf
Chien C-T., Benaltabet T., Torfstein A. and Paytan A. (2019) Contributions of atmospheric deposition to Pb concentration and isotopic composition in seawater and particulate matter in the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Environmental Science & Technology 53, 6162-6170. pdf
2018
Chernihovsky N., Torfstein A. and Almogi-Labin A. (2018) Seasonal flux patterns of planktonic foraminifera in a deep, oligotrophic, marginal sea: sediment trap time series from the Gulf of Aqaba, north Red Sea. Deep-Sea Research Part I 140, 78-94. pdf
Bradbury H.J., Torfstein A., Wong K. and Turchyn A.V. (2018) The calcium isotope systematics of the late Quaternary Dead Sea. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 19, 4260-4273. pdf
Boyko V., Torfstein A. and Kamyshny A. (2018) Oxygen Consumption in Permeable and Cohesive Sediments of the Gulf of Aqaba. Aquatic Geochemistry 24, 165-193. pdf
Torfstein A., Goldstein S.L. and Stein M. (2018) Evidence for enhanced Saharan dust input to the Levant during Heinrich stadials. Quaternary Science Reviews 102, p. 149-165. pdf
Torfstein A. and Kienast S.S. (2018) No correlation between atmospheric dust and surface chlorophyll-a in the oligotrophic Gulf of Aqaba, northern Red Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research - biogeosciences, 123, doi.org/10.1002/2017JG004063. pdf, Eos Research Spotlight, GEOTRACES highlight
2017
Steiner Z., Lazar B., Torfstein A. and Erez Y. (2017) Testing how variations in water column productivity affect trace metal accumulation in marine sediments: the Gulf of Aqaba, Red Sea. Chemical Geology 473, 40-49. pdf
Torfstein A. and Turchyn A.V. (2017) Rates and cycles of microbial sulfate reduction in the hyper-saline Dead Sea over the last 200 kyrs from sedimentary d34S and d18O(SO4). Frontiers in Earth Science 5, 62. pdf, link
Torfstein A., Teutsch N., Tirosh O., Shaked Y., Rivlin T., Zipori A., Stein M., Lazar B. and Erel Y. (2017) Chemical characterization of atmospheric dust from a weekly time series in the north Red Sea between 2006-2010. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 211, 373-393. pdf, link
Kolodny Y., Torfstein A., Weiss-Sarusi K., Zakon Y. and Halicz L. (2017) 238U-235U-234U fractionation between tetravalent and hexavalent uranium in seafloor phosphorites. Chemical Geology 451, p. 1-8. pdf, link
Torfstein A. (2017) The Amora Formation, Dead Sea Basin, in: Enzel and Bar-Yosef eds., Quaternary Environments, Climate Change and Humans in the Levant, Cambridge University Press. pdf
Torfstein A. and Enzel Y. (2017) Dead Sea lake level changes and Levant paleoclimate, in: Enzel and Bar-Yosef eds., Quaternary Environments, Climate Change and Humans in the Levant, Cambridge University Press. pdf
Stein M., Lazar B., Torfstein A. and Goldstein S.L. (2017) Chronologies of the late Quaternary coral reefs and lake sediments from the Red Sea and Dead Sea Rift Valley, in: Enzel and Bar-Yosef eds., Quaternary Environments, Climate Change and Humans in the Levant, Cambridge University Press. pdf
Erel Y., Goldstein S.L., Torfstein A., Palchan D., Ben-Israel M. and Stein M. (2017) Isotopic tracers of dust and loess in the Levant, in: Enzel and Bar-Yosef eds., Quaternary Environments, Climate Change and Humans in the Levant, Cambridge University Press. pdf
2015
Torfstein A., Goldstein S.L., Stein M., Kushnir Y., Enzel Y. and Haug G. (2015) Response to comment on "Dead Sea drawdown and monsoonal influences in the Levant during the last interglacial [EPSL, 412, 235-244, 2015]". Earth and Planetary Science Letters 427, p. 306-308. pdf
Torfstein A., Goldstein S.L., Stein M., Kushnir Y., Enzel Y. and Haug G. (2015) Dead Sea drawdown and monsoonal influences in the Levant during the last interglacial. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 412, p. 235-244. pdf
2014
Neugebauer I., Brauer A., Schwab M.J., Waldmann N.D., Enzel Y., Kitagawa H., Torfstein A., Frank U., Dulski P., Agnon A., Ariztegui D., Ben-Avraham Z., Goldstein S.L. and Stein M. (2014) Lithology of the long sediment record recovered by the ICDP Dead Sea Deep Drilling Project (DSDDP). Quaternary Science Reviews 102, p. 149-165. pdf
2013
Torfstein A., Hammerschmidt K., Friedriechsen H., Starinsky A. and Kolodny Y. (2013) Helium isotopes in the Dead Sea Transform waters. Chemical Geology 352, p. 188-201. pdf
Torfstein A., Goldstein S.L., Stein M. and Enzel Y. (2013) Impacts of Abrupt Climate Changes in the Levant from last glacial Dead Sea levels. Quaternary Science Reviews 69, p. 1-7. pdf
Torfstein A., Goldstein S.L., Kagan E. and Stein M. (2013) Integrated multi-site U-Th chronology of the last glacial Lake Lisan. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 104, p. 210-231. pdf
2012 and earlier
Torfstein A. (2012) Size fractionation Reproducibility and Provenance of Helium Isotopes in North-Equatorial Pacific Pelagic Clays. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 339-340, p. 151-163. pdf
Torfstein A., Winckler G. and Tripati A. (2010) Productivity feedback did not terminate the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Climate of the Past 6, p. 265-272. pdf
Waldmann N., Torfstein A. and Stein M. (2010) Northward migration of monsoon activity across the Saharo-Arabian desert belt during the last interglacial: evidence from the Levant. Geology 38, p. 567-570. pdf
Stein M., Torfstein A., Gavrieli I. and Yechieli Y. (2010) Abrupt aridities and salt deposition in the post-glacial Dead Sea and their North Atlantic connection. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, p. 567-575. pdf
Torfstein A., Hasse-Schramm A., Waldmann N., Kolodny Y. and Stein M. (2009) U-series and oxygen isotope chronology of the mid-Pleistocene Lake Amora (Dead Sea basin). Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 73, p. 2603-2630. pdf
Torfstein A., Gavrieli I., Katz A., Kolodny Y. and Stein M. (2008) Gypsum as a monitor of the paleo- limnological-hydrological conditions in Lake Lisan and the Dead Sea. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72, p. 2491-2509. pdf
Torfstein A., Gavrieli I. and Stein M. (2005) The sources and evolution of sulfur in the hypersaline Lake Lisan (paleo-Dead Sea). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 236, p. 61-77. pdf
Miscellaneaous Publications
Torfstein A. (2012) The history of the ancient Dead Sea lakes, Melakh Haaretz, special series dedicated to Dead Sea studies (In Hebrew). pdf
Torfstein A. (2008) Brine freshwater interplay and effects on the evolution of saline lakes: The Dead Sea Rift terminal lakes, Geological Survey of Israel, Report GSI/20/2008. pdf
Torfstein A., Kagen E., Stein M. and Agnon A. (2007) Paleo-seismology and paleo- limnology in the Dead Sea Basin during the Quaternary: new studies of the Amora, Lisan and Ze’elim Formations, Annual Meeting, Israel Geological Society, Neve Zohar, Field trip guide, p. 105-132 (In Hebrew). pdf
Torfstein A. and Stein M. (2023) The Dead Sea Basin lakes as unique archives of regional Quaternary hydroclimate: A voyage between the Sedom Lagoon and the Holocene Dead Sea, Annual Meeting, Israel Geological Society, Ein Gedi, Field trip guide (In Hebrew). pdf
עלון באר אורה (2017): ״היה פה פעם ים?״, ״באר אורה והבקע הסורי-אפריקאי״, ״שינויי אקלים בבאר אורה״