Holocene diatom stratigraphy in the Archipelago Sea, northern Baltic Sea

Two sediment cores from the Archipelago Sea in the northern Baltic Sea were examined for their siliceous microfossils in order to study the Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of the area. The diatom record was divided into local diatom assemblage zones (LDAZ). An age model was constructed using independent palaeomagnetic and AMS-C-14 methods. The early history of the Archipelago Sea was freshwater. Initial brackish-water influence is observed at 7,950 +/- 80 cal. BP (LDAZ4), but fully brackish conditions were established at 7,700 +/- 80 cal. BP (LDAZ5). Diatom assemblages indicate increasing salinity, warming climate, and possible increasing trophic state during the transition from lacustrine to brackish-water conditions. The decreasing abundance of Pseudosolenia calcar-avis (Schultze) Sundstrom and the increasing abundance of the ice-cover indicator species Pauliella taeniata (Grunow) Round and Basson indicate reduced salinity and climatic cooling after similar to 5,000 cal. BP. LDAZ boundaries do not always correlate with changes in the sediment appearance, which underlines the importance of defining biostratigraphic boundaries independently to the sediment visual character, in contrast with the conventional practice for classifying the Baltic Sea sediments.