Abstract Research over the past few decades has shown that recent marine dinoflagellate cyst assemblages are strongly influenced by environmental factors, and statistical modelling of ecological signals (SMES) therefore has potential application for interpretation of fossil dinocysts in biostratigraphy. Towards this end a global database of recent cyst distributions from known environments has been developed using statistical methods that most accurately reflect and quantify the ecological signals expressed by the cysts. The first test is reported here of the application of SMES to industrial biostratigraphy using a palynology dataset from four wells along an onshore-offshore transect from the Norwegian North Sea provided by Statoil. The wells were part of a larger study on palaeoenvironments previously completed by Statoil on approximately 48 wells, where some of the traditional multivariate statistical methods had been tried but without success. The palaeoenvironment was thus partly understood, allowing the SMES method to be tested against a control. Correspondence analysis on the dinocyst data from each well allowed the identification of the statistically most important species, and the relative positions of these species along the two most important axes suggested ecological trends (the coastal/oceanic being most dominant). Tracking these down-hole showed two major shifts in each well that could be correlated between all wells; the shifts corresponded to major flooding surfaces previously identified, and suggested orientation of the well sites relative to a palaeo-shoreline. This first test strongly suggests that these methods offer a much quicker, and more robust application for palaeoenvironmental interpretations from the dinocysts in biostratigraphic datasets.

Abstract The Paleocene sedimentary sequences of the Faroe-Shetland Basin, northeast Atlantic, contain abundant palynomorphs (algae, pollen and spores). While one component of the palynoflora, the dinoflagellate cysts, has been used as the basis for biostratigraphical subdivisions of the succession, the terriginous palynoflora is the more abundant. This terriginous component was derived from two primary sources. The first, and most common source has an angiosperm palynoflora dominated by hickory types ( Momipites species), which occur in association with plane-types (various Tricolpites species) and Ginkgo . This palynoflora occurs commonly in most Faroe-Shetland Basin wells throughout the early and mid-Paleocene succession. A second flora, which is restricted to early and mid Paleocene successions in the west of the basin, has an angiosperm component dominated by Cupuliferoipollenites and Cupuliferoidaepollenites species (broadly, ash and chestnut types). This Greenland Flora is confined to four main stratigraphical pulses in the early and mid-Paleocene, occurring more commonly in proximity to major transfer zones, and west of the Corona Ridge. This distribution pattern provides evidence of argillaceous sediment transportation from the west into the Faroe-Shetland Basin via major transfer zones. Comparison to palaeoclimatic interpretations dispute a relationship between climate change and westerly sediment input into the Faroe-Shetland Basin. Instead, a comparison is invited between pulses of igneous activity in the North Atlantic Igneous Province and sediment transfer from the uplifted eastern zone of the proto-North Atlantic rift.