A high-resolution dinoflagellate cyst record from latest Holocene sediments in Koljö Fjord, Sweden

Abstract

A high-resolution dinoflagellate cyst record is detailed for the very latest Holocene sediments preserved in a silled fjord from western Sweden. Koljö Fjord is characterised by brackish water conditions together with intermittent deep-water renewal and oxygen depletion. The data provide information derived from the phytoplankton populations living in the surface waters, including possible changes to the nutrient availability and salinity regimes using an actualistic ecological approach. The cyst record provides evidence that the dinoflagellate populations within the surface waters of the fjord over the last 155 years or so have fluctuated markedly. The dinoflagellate cyst record from Core KG1A demonstrates a 10-fold increase in both total cyst numbers and Lingulodinium polyedrum since c. 1938, and a shift from assemblages with high Pentapharsodinium dalei to those with high L. polyedrum and Protoceratium reticulatum from about 1980. These fluctuations are singly and/or collectively indicative of possible cultural changes within the fjord; the effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation on both deep-water renewal and seasonality; nutrient enhancement (eutrophication?); and increased water column stability.