ORGANIC-WALLED DINOFLAGELLATE CYSTS IN SURFACE SEDIMENTS FROM THE ARGENTINE SHELF: TRACERS OF PRESENT AND PAST SEA-SURFACE CONDITIONS

C. MARCELA BOREL

Buenos Aires

Workshop; Workshop for the Intensification of Cooperation between The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); 2014

The mapping of the distribution and the abundance of dinoflagellate cysts in modern sediments of the Argentine Continental Shelf, including toxic taxa, is important to unravel the interactions and feedbacks between biogeochemistry, biogeography, plankton composition and occurrence of harmful algae. A database shall be established to show the relationship between modern assemblages of dinocysts in sediments and biogeochemical and abiotic conditions in the water column. These data shall be used for palaeo-environmental reconstructions especially with regard to surface water temperature, salinity, productivity and inshore/offshore trend. In the San Jorge Gulf (SJG) dinoflagellate cyst distribution was correlated with the detection of toxins, cells, geochemical parameters, such as macro and micronutrients, and physical and hydrographical factors, increasing the knowledge of the harmful algae in a coastal system of the Southwest Atlantic Ocean. The benthic cysts recovered in this study inside and at the edge of the SJG highlighted the latent possibility for the development of local blooms of potentially toxigenic dinoflagellates