Late Quaternary Ponto-Caspian dinoflagellate cyst assemblages from the Gulf of Corinth, Central Greece (eastern Mediterranean Sea)

We present here the first long Quaternary record of organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst assemblages analysed from sediment cores retrieved during the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 381 in the Gulf of Corinth. Site M0078A is located in the central part of the Gulf of Corinth (GoC), a semi-isolated marine basin that was repeatedly isolated and reconnected to the Mediterranean Sea during the Quaternary glacial/interglacial cycles. Our results show that dinoflagellate cysts are sorted in two major ecogroups, each group alternating between marine and isolated/brackish conditions. The marine intervals are characterised by high dinocyst diversity whereas the isolated intervals are dominated by taxa thriving in low-salinity conditions such as Spiniferites cruciformis and Pyxidinopsis psilata. In several of these assemblages, S. cruciformis is so prevalent that it forms almost monospecific assemblages. The low salinity dinocyst assemblages are reported for the first time outside the Ponto-Caspian region and they show a close affinity to modern assemblages from the Black Sea, Caspian Sea and Marmara Sea. The alternations between marine and brackish conditions recorded in the Gulf of Corinth reflect changes in surface water salinity (SSS) and temperature (SST), in response to the Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles. These seem to be in good agreement with regional and global marine isotope and sea-level records. Our findings suggest that the study region sensitively responds to climate forcing at orbital time scales and that local factors most likely drive shifts in dinoflagellate species composition and diversity.