Preliminary results of a micropaleontological study of a sediment core collected on the Bellsund Drift (Svalbard): the last 10 ka.

Diatoms are one of the major phytoplankton groups blooming in cold and nutrient-rich regions. They are sensitive to minute changes in environmental parameters (e.g. temperature, salinity etc.) therefore are widely used to study Quaternary oceanographic and climatic evolution (Leventer et al., 2010; Crosta, 2011). In the Arctic area diatoms tend to be less silicified and, therefore, more easily dissolved in the sediments (Leventer et al., 2010; Crosta, 2011). In this work, we present the results of the combined study of diatom and foraminifera assemblages together with sedimentological characteristics of the long Calypso core GS191-01PC collected on the Bellsund Drift (South-western margin of Spitzbergen) during the expedition of the RV G.O.Sars (5-15 June 2014), in the framework of the Project Eurofleets-2 PREPARED. The study focuses on the last 10 ka with the final aim to understand the variations of the sea surface temperature a. The preliminary results of the micropaleontological and sedimentological analyses allow to recognize three different units that correspond to three different climatic periods: the Cold event 8.2, the Holocene Climate Optimun (6-4 ka) and Neoglacial period (4-2 ka). Chemical-geochemical (organic and total carbon, major and trace elements) analyses and radiocarbon data support the results based on microfossils assemblages and sedimentological data.