Calcareous dinoflagellates from the Mediterranean Sea: taxonomy, ecology and palaeoenvironmental application.

Although a lot of environmental studies have been carried out on dinoflagellates producing calcareous cysts in the last years, the observations are still restricted mainly to the south and equatorial Atlantic Ocean and the Arabian Sea. Calcareous dinoflagellates have been found to be excellent proxies in palaeoenvironmental reconstructions, especially in oligotrophic and well-stratified water masses. Therefore, extending the observations on calcareous dinoflagellates to the Mediterranean Sea, which is characterised by nutrient depletion and strong stratification of surface water masses in wide parts, will possibly increase the still incomplete basic knowledge about calcareous dinoflagellates and thus lead to more reliable reconstructions. Information about calcareous cyst producing dinoflagellates from the Mediterranean Sea is so far restricted to inner neritic parts of the Gulf of Naples and some accidental records in nannoplankton studies. In this thesis, detailed qualitative and quantitative analyses of surface sediments from most parts of the Mediterranean Sea are presented.