Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages as repertoire of species diversity: main results of the EU-SEED project related to Mediterranean sites

Knowledge of phytoplankton species composition is important to understand bloom events in the coastal areas; it is also crucial to have information on the presence of novel and potentially introduced taxa and to confirm the recurrent events of a species. In the case of dinoflagellates, the alternation between the life stages (vegetative and resting stage) has profound implications for population dynamics. Cyst assemblages in surface sediments represent a temporally integrated repertoire of species diversity. Therefore, cyst "seedbed" maps provide baseline information for monitoring purposes, to depict geographic patterns of harmful species, and to detect the introduction of new species.