The North Pacific Diatom Species <i>Neodenticula seminae</i> in the Modern and Holocene Sediments of the North Atlantic and Arctic

Abstract

The paper presents micropaleontological information and observations of the North Pacific diatom species Neodenticula (N.) seminae (Simonsen and Kanaya) Akiba and Yanagisawa in the surface and Holocene sediments from the North Atlantic, Nordic, and Arctic Seas. The compilation of previously published data and new findings of this study on N. seminae in the surface sediments shows its broad occurrence as a usual element of the modern diatom microflora in the Nordic, Labrador, and Irminger Seas. The recent migration of N. seminae from its native area, the Subarctic Pacific, reflects the oceanographic shift in the late 1990s as greater transport of the warmer surface Pacific water to the Arctic causes Arctic sea-ice reduction. Micropaleontological studies of the Holocene sediments document the multiple events of N. seminae appearance in the Arctic during the latest Pleistocene and Holocene warming intervals. These observations can suggest the events of the increased influence of the North Pacific water on the Arctic environments in the past, not just during the recent warm climate amplification.

Keywords

• micropaleontology
• modern monitoring of climate change
• Pacific water in the Arctic and North Atlantic
• species migration
• Neodenticula seminae
• Arctic Holocene paleoecology