Invasive diatoms in the surface layer of bottom sediments in the Norwegian, Greenland and Barents seas and their possible application for paleoceanographic reconstructions

The paper presents the results of studying the invasive diatom species in the sediments’ surface layer of the Norwegian, Greenland and Barents seas. The Redundancy Analysis (RDA) method helped to identify the main environmental factors influencing the distribution of invasive diatoms. The duration of sea-ice cover and the position of the marginal ice zone within the study area are the principal ones. The geographic distribution of invasive diatom species was established. The North Pacific species Neodenticula seminae was found only in the North Atlantic, its distribution is limited to 12–15° EL. The presence of relatively warm-water diatom species Shionodiscus oestrupii, Coscinodiscus radiatus and C. asteromphalus is associated with the penetration of warm Atlantic currents. The distribution of sea-ice and ice-neritic species directly depends on the location of the seasonal sea-ice cover. High contents of sea-ice (up to 30%) and ice-neritic (more than 45%) diatom species in sediments may indicate the proximity of the sea ice boundary in the recent geological past, while low contents (about 2 and 15%, respectively) indicate their invasion by currents or as a result of iceberg transport. The results show that invasive diatom species could be used as paleomarkers of the paleoceanological changes, affecting the intensity of warm Atlantic water influx into the Arctic, and the boundaries of seasonal sea-ice cover and the marginal ice zone.

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