Diatom changes in sediments of basins possessing marine/lacustrine transitions in Frosta, Nord-Trøndelag, Norway

Diatoms in lower sediments from eight basins of the Frosta peninsula, Nord-Trødelag, Norway, have been analysed. All the basins have been isolated from the sea, and a succession from a flora influenced by marine and brackish water to a freshwater flora is always found. An attempt is made to establish a relative salinity range for the fjord basin around the investigated area, from the Younger Dryas chronozone to the end of the Atlantic chronozone. These changes seem to be controlled by the accumulation and ablation of the ice shield and also by major climatic changes in the early and middle Holocene. It is not possible to make a general list of lagoon taxa, because of great variation from basin to basin. The isolation contact (marine/brackish boundary) must be established at the end of the brackish water flora in the absence of lagoon types. The first period after isolation is characterized by a maximum in productivity with dominance of alkaliphilous types among the diatoms. A pioneer flora with dominance of Fragilaria taxa can be traced in the uppermost basins which were isolated just after the deglaciation of the area