OCCURRENCE OF HALODINIUM: AN INDICATOR OF GLACIAL RUNOFF FROM THE LATE PLEISTOCENE SEDIMENTS OF SVALBARD

The Svalbard region of High Arctic has witnessed significant climatic and environmental changes during the Last Interglacial. This period can be easily reached out and studied to better understand the recent warming conditions and the associated ecological and environmental adjustments, which occurred just before the current warming. Much of previous work on the Late Quaternary sediments of Svalbard focused on establishing the chronology, styles of glaciations and fluctuations in Svalbard-Barents Sea ice sheet.

The sediment samples were recently collected during the Indian Arctic Expedition, 2016 to Svalbard, Norway. The genus Halodinium, Bujak (1984) has been recorded from the Late Pleistocene glacio-marine sediments at Stuphallet, Ny-Alesund, Svalbard. Halodinium is said to be of algal origin found in marine to estuarine environments and provides signal of increased glacial melt water influence. The early records of Halodinium are from the Pliocene sediments of Bering Sea and uppermost Pliocene of southwestern England to recent sediments of Canada. These have also been recorded in the fjord surface sediments of Baffin Bay and show significant increase towards the glacier meltwater plumes.