A study of the relationship between the composition of microfossils (palynomorphs and diatoms) in sinking particulate matter collected over two years from the Lofoten Basin (Norwegian Sea), and the underlying bottom sediments, revealed that thanatocenosis assemblages depends on various environmental parameters. The increase in particle fluxes in the near-bottom layer was caused by intensified deep current activity, resulting in the formation of a nepheloid layer at least 450 m thick in the basin. The higher abundance of relatively warm waters dinocysts and diatoms, in both the water column and the sediments, and their increased flux over the past three decades reflects the growing influence of the North Atlantic Current and its extension, the Norwegian Current, in the eastern Norwegian Sea.
Novichkova et al. (Wed,) studied this question.