Last Decades Warming Evidences in the NW Barent Sea (Arctic)

The Arctic area is responding more rapidly to global warming than most other areas on our planet. The Kveithola Trough located in the NW Barents Sea has an interesting sedimentary record due to its geographical conditions and its dynamic glacial history formation. Its location allows the input and interaction of two of the main water masses, the cold, fresh Arctic Water coming from the north and the warm, salty Atlantic Water flowing from the south. Four sediment cores collected in the Kveithola Trough area during the oceanographic cruise EUROFLEETS2-BURSTER were analysed with regard to benthic foraminiferal assemblages and sedimentological parameters in order to elucidate past variability of the water masses, the organic matter flux and oxygen concentration to the sea floor during the last decades. The foraminiferal assemblages composition and and taxonomic abundance allow inferring significant environmental differences between the evolution of the inner and outer shelf areas. The dominant foraminiferal species recurrent in the study area may indicate that during the last 45 years a higher influence of warm water and an increase in the anoxic conditions has been established along of the Kveithola Trough area. These evidences need to be confirm by further multidisciplinary analysis including biological, sedimentological and chemical data.