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Votadinium calvum

Zonneveld, K.A.F. and Pospelova V. (2015). A determination key for modern dinoflagellate cysts. Palynology 39 (3), 387- 407.

 
V. calvum
cyst with cell content
photograph: Eldo Roza
Cape Blanc sediment trap: Sample CBi 7-16
 
 
dorsal view
photo: Karin Zonneveld
cross section
hoto: Kain Zonneveld
ventral view
photo: Karin Zonneveld

Field characteristics

Votadinium calvum Reid 1977

Field haracteristics:
Cysts are dorso-ventrally compressed, with a"heart shaped" outline and characterised by wo rounded antapical horns separated by a shallow depression in dorso-ventral view. Trapezoidal in lateral view. Length and breath almost equal. Wall is thin ~1 µm and singlelayered. Cyst wall is ussualy smooth but may have some microgranulation. Intercalary archeopyle truncating the apex obliquely.

Motile affinity: Protoperidinium oblongum (Aurivillius 1898) Cleve 1900.
Cyst theca relationship: Wall and Dale, 1968
Stratigraphic range: Middle Pleistocene-Recent.

Comparison with other species: 
This species has very rounded antapical horns and a thin cystwall. The large archeopyle often gives the cyst and hearth shape appearance. The cell wall is smooth and the cingulum not reflected.

Geographic distribution

Geographic distribution based on :
Zonneveld et al., 2013. Atlas of modern dinoflagellate cyst distribution based on 2405 datapoints. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, v. 191, 1-197
Votadinium calvum can be considered as a (sub-polar) temperate to equatorial coastal species. It occurs in hypersaline and hyposaline environments. Highest relative abundances are observed in eutrophic environments (including upwelling areas) where bottom waters can be anoxic to well-ventilated. Enhanced cyst production can be linked to enhanced diatom and organic matter production in the upper ocean and in several areas possibly also to anthropogenic eutrophication (especially by nitrate).
Distribution:
Votadinium calvum is restricted to coastal sediments from temperate to equatorial regions with exception of a few sub-polar coastal sites of the Beaufort Sea. SSS vary from low throughout the year (e.g. Black Sea) to full-marine (e.g. coastal upwelling areas). Highest abundances (up to 14%) occur in Sea of Japan and East China Sea.

Environmental parameter range:
SST: -2.0 - 29.7°C (winter - summer), SSS: 16.8 - 38.4 (summer - summer), [P]: 0.07 - 1.45 μmol/l, [N]: 0.04 - 15.6 μmol/l, chlorophyll-a: 0.1 - 20.0 ml/l, bottom water [O2]: 0.01 - 7.8 ml/l.
Abundances up to 2% occur where surface SSS are reduced throughout the year and abundances up to 1.3% occur in hypersaline environments with SSS: > 37 throughout the year. Although present in oligotrophic regions, highest relative abundances occur in eutrophic environments such as upwelling areas, which may have large inter-annual variability in the trophic state of the upper waters.

Comparison with other records:
Apart from the recordings in this Atlas Votadinium calvum has been observed in coastal sediments off southern China (Wang et al., 2004c), off India and Gulf of Oman in the eastern Arabian Sea (Bradford and Wall, 1984; Godhe et al., 2000; Zonneveld and Brummer, 2000), the Peruvian upwelling area (Biebow et al., 1993), the upwelling area off the Iberian Peninsula (Ribeiro and Amorim, 2008) and the western Barents Sea (Solignac et al., 2009).
Sediment trap and seasonal distribution studies document that Votadinium calvum cyst production is not seasonally restricted in the upwelling regions off Iberia, NW Africa, and western Arabian Sea or in the Saanich Inlet northwestern Pacific (BC, Canada, Zonneveld; Brummer, 2000; Ribeiro and Amorim, 2008; Price and Pospelova, 2011). In the Omura Bay, cysts are typically produced in late autumn to winter (Fujii and Matsuoka, 2006). The sediment trap records from the Saanich Inlet (BC. Canada) and off NW Africa reveal that the production of cysts has a positive correlation with the production of opal (reflecting diatom production) and total organic matter in the upper waters. Since diatoms are documented as prey (Jacobson and Anderson, 1986), this suggests that it depends on prey availability. In studies investigating the relationship between the sedimentary cyst association and anthropogenic pollution, regularly a positive correlation occurs between anthropogenic influence and the abundance of this species, especially when sea surface nitrate concentrations are considered (Krepakevich and Pospelova, 2010; Satta et al., 2010; Shin et al., 2010).
Although this species occurs in regions that are seasonally covered by sea ice, a correlation could not be observed between cyst concentrations (relative abundances) and sea ice duration (Radi and de Vernal, 2008)