Late Holocene dinoflagellate cysts as indicators for short-term climate variability in the eastern Laptev Sea (Arctic Ocean)

A sediment sequence from the eastern Laptev Sea shelf (Siberian Arctic, Rus sia) has been studied for dinoflagellate cysts in order to reconstruct sea- surface conditions during the late Holocene. Variability of assemblage comp osition and derived sea-surface temperature estimates indicate that the neo glacial cooling was not a gradual climate change from 2510 to 900 cal. yr B P. Relatively stable conditions, with temperatures that were warmer than to day, were punctuated by a few cooling events in summer on centennial time-s cales. During these events temperatures reached modern values. This suggest s that modern conditions may have been established abruptly within a short period in the past 1000 yr, which is not documented in our record. Copyrigh t (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.