Holocene variations of sea-surface conditions in the southeastern Barents Sea, reconstructed from dinoflagellate cyst assemblages

Palynomorphs were analysed in two sediment cores from the southeastern Bare nts Sea representing the past 8.3 and 4.4 kyr. High dinocyst contents and s pecies diversity enabled the application of the best analogue method to qua ntitatively reconstruct sea-surface salinities temperatures and ice cover u sing 677 modern reference sites from the North Atlantic and Arctic seas, in cluding new data from the Barents Sea reported here. At the southern core s ite, where waters are affected by the Atlantic inflow, sea-surface conditio ns were relatively warm and stable between ca. 8000 and 5000 calendar yr BP . In contrast, the past 5 kyr had periods with cooler temperatures and exte nded ice cover, fluctuating mostly at 1-1.5 kyr frequencies at both sites. Most pronounced coolings occurred around 8.1, 5, 3.5-3.2 and 2.5 ka. The no rthern site additionally shows younger cooling events, tentatively dated to 1.4, 0.3 and 0.1 ka. Identified variations in sea-surface conditions indic ate changes in Atlantic water inputs to the Barents Sea. Our results genera lly correlate to palaeoclimatic reconstructions from northwestern Eurasia, exemplified by palynological records from Karelia. This correlation suggest s that sea-surface variations in the Barents Sea reflect large-scale change s in atmospheric and oceanic interactions between the North Atlantic and th e Arctic. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.