Multiproxy investigation of the last 2,000 years BP marine paleoenvironmental record along the western Spitsbergen margin

ABSTRACT

A reconstruction of the last 2,000 years BP of environmental and oceanographic changes on the western margin of Spitsbergen was performed using a multidisciplinary approach including the fossil assemblages of diatoms, planktic and benthic foraminifera and calcareous nannofossils and the use of geochemistry (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction). We identified two warm periods (2,000–1,600 years BP and 1,300–700 years BP) that were associated with the Roman Warm Period and the Medieval Warm Period that alternate with colder oceanic conditions and sea ice coverage occurred during the Dark Ages (1,600–1,300 years BP) and the beginning of the Little Ice Age. During the Medieval Warm Period the occurrence of ice-rafted debris and Aulocoseira spp., a specific diatom genus commonly associated with continental freshwater, suggests significant runoff of meltwaters from local glaciers.

KEYWORDS:

• Micropaleontology
• Sedimentology
• Arctic
• Svalbard

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Eurofleets2 for ten days’ ship time on the R/V G.O. Sars, equipped with the Calypso piston corer. We thank Captain John Hugo Johnson, the officers, and crew of Expedition 191 and the technicians Martin Dahl, Ingve Fjelstad, Dag Inge Blindheim, and Åse Sudman for strong support during the acquisition activities. The authors thank Dr. I. Polovodova Asteman and an anonymous reviewer for advice. The authors also thank Editor Anne E. Jennings for the revision that improved the quality of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

The authors thank Eurofleets2 for giving to the project PREPARED (Grant Agreement No. 312762) ten days’ ship time on the R/V G.O. Sars, equipped with the Calypso piston corer. The sedimentological analyses were funded by the Italian projects PNRA‐CORIBARIT (PdR 2013/C2.01) and Premiale ARCA (grant n.25_11_2013_973); and by the Spanish project DEGLABAR (CTM2010‐17386) funded by the “Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad”. The authors also thank AAAR for the publication Grant No. UAAR-2022-C6073 for the present special issue.