High-resolution dinoflagellate cyst biostratigraphy and palaeoenvironmental analysis of the Cretaceous succession in the Norwegian Sea area

The proposed project is a part of PhD study held at the Institute of Geological Sciences, Polish Academy of Sciences. It involves reconstruction of the geological history and palaeoenvinronmental conditions of the Norwegian and Barents Sea areas during th e Late Cretaceous and early Paleogene using fossil dinoflagellate cysts. The research is of key importance to understand palaeoclimatic trends in the subpolar regions during the Late Cretaceous. This period is considered to be the time of warm climate, high level of atmospheric CO2 and high global sea level. Because the Arctic region plays a central role in global climate, it is crucial to understand the paleoclimate also in "deep time" in order to increase our understanding of climate changes through g eological time. In addition the hydrocarbon potential of the Norwegian Continental Shelf has attracted a growing interest from the petrolum industry. Despite the extensive use of dinoflagellate cysts for dating and correlation as well as paleoenvironmen tal proxies, hardly any data has been published from this area and from this part of the succession. This study will therefore add valuable new scientific data, combining academic and industrial experience and will be done in collaboration with researcher s at UiB. A comparison with other relevant areas will allow improvement of the biostratigraphic models for dating and correlation for the Upper Cretaceous and Paleocene successions. Finally, the study will provide valuable insight into relative paleow ater depth and palaeoclimate changes based on spatial and temporal trends records from the dinocyst assemblages distribution. It is important to stress that a visit by this candidate to be integrated in an active reseach environment in Norway is also cru cial for the Norwegian partner in order to be able to implement these results. The projects seek to promote the internationalisation of Norwegian research by linking up two scientific communities.