Late Holocene Environments on the Spitsbergen Shelf According to Dinocyst Analysis

The marine environmental conditions on the southwestern shelf of Spitsbergen from the mid‑19th century to the present were reconstructed using dinocyst analysis. The final phase of the Little Ice Age was characterized by intensified cold East Spitsbergen Current. An increase in North Atlantic species between 1920 and 1960 indicates an influx of relatively warm waters, which peaked in the 1930s and 1940s. Recent Warming has led to a significant restructuring of dinocyst assemblages. Their response manifested in a marked increase in heterotrophic taxa, an elevated abundances of Brigantedinium spp. and cysts of Pentapharsodinium dalei—proxies of increased productivity and stratified water columns—as well as an increase in species diversity and a decrease in overall dinocyst concentration.