Kenneth Neil Mertens,^1,* Haifeng Gu,^2,** Yoshihito Takano,^3,*** Andrea M. Price,^4,**** Vera Pospelova,^5,***** Kara Bogus,^6,****** Gerard J. M. Versteegh,^{7,*******,********} Fabienne Marret,^8,********* R. Eugene Turner,^9,********** Nancy N. Rabalais,^{10,***********} Kazumi Matsuoka<sup>3,************

1</sup>aResearch Unit for Palaeontology, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 s8, 9000 Ghent, Belgium;
²bThird Institute of Oceanography, SOA, Xiamen 361005, China;
³cInstitute for East China Sea Research (ECSER), 1551-7, Taira-machi, Nagasaki 851-2213, Japan;
⁴dDepartment of Geography, McGill University, Burnside Hall, 805 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, QC
⁵eSchool of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, OEASB A405, P.O. Box 1700 STN CSC, Vict
⁶fInternational Ocean Discovery Program, Texas A&M University, 1000 Discovery Drive, College Station,
⁷gMARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, Leobener Strasse, 28359 Bremen, Germany;
⁸hSchool of Environmental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 7ZT, UK;
⁹iDepartment of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
¹⁰jLouisiana Universities Marine Consortium, Chauvin, Louisiana 70344 USA

^*Kenneth Neil Mertens is a permanent researcher at Ifremer, LER BO, Concarneau, France. He received his PhD in 2009 from Ghent University. His research interests are the taxonomy, evolution, phylogeny and biogeography of dinoflagellates, and the palaeoceanographical application of dinoflagellate cysts, particularly in the Quaternary and Neogene.
^**Haifeng Gu is a professor at Third Institute of Oceanography, China. He received his PhD in 2007 from Ocean University of China. His research interests are the taxonomy and evolution of dinoflagellates.
^***Yoshihito Takano is a postdoctoral researcher at National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Fisheries Research Agency, Yokohama, Japan. He received his PhD in 2006 from Hokkaido University. His research interests are the taxonomy and evolution of dinoflagellates.
^****Andrea Price is a PhD candidate in the Department of Geography at McGill University. She received her BSc Honours and MSc in earth and ocean sciences at the University of Victoria. Her main research interests include using dinoflagellate cysts as indicators of water quality in North American estuaries, the seasonality of cyst production and the use of cysts in Quaternary palaeoceanographic studies.
^*****Vera Pospelova is an associate professor at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences (SEOS), University of Victoria. She received her Honours BSc in geology from Novosibirsk University (Russia) and PhD in physical geography from McGill University (Canada). Vera's research interests include: taxonomy of late Quaternary dinoflagellate cysts; cyst production, ecology and seasonal dynamics in coastal waters; applications of dinoflagellate cysts as indicators of water quality conditions, with an emphasis on the pollution and eutrophication in North American estuaries; and palaeoceanographic reconstructions using sedimentary archives.
^******Kara Bogus is a staff scientist with the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) at Texas A&M University (College Station, Texas, USA). She earned her PhD (marine geosciences) from the University of Bremen (Bremen, Germany). Her research interests include using organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts in palaeoceanographic studies, cyst wall chemical composition and its application to both environmental reconstructions and diagenesis of sedimentary organic carbon.
^*******Gerard Versteegh combines organic geochemistry, palynology and palaeobotany to assess organic matter degradation, and, through this, to elucidate present and past environment and evolution. In 1995 he received his PhD in biology at Utrecht University on palynology and the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciations. He expanded his expertise with organic geochemistry at the Netherlands Institute for Sea Research. At the Universit é de Lille 1, France, he was an invited professor in 2007 and 2008, and obtained a prestigious Heisenberg Fellowship from the German Science Foundation in 2009. Currently he is at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Bremerhaven and the Centre for Marine Environmental Research, Bremen University. His interests include the macromolecular composition of palynomorphs, selective degradation of organic matter, the Palaeozoic terrestrialisation, (sub)recent Mediterranean environmental change, proxy development, lipids, acritarchs and dinoflagellates.
^********Now at: Alfred-Wegener-Institut (AWI). Helmholtz Zentrum für Polar und Meeresforschung, Am Handelshafen 12, D-27570, Bremerhaven, Germany, gerard.versteegh@awi.de
^*********Fabienne Marret is a micropalaeontologist by training, with research interest in the field of Quaternary palaeoceanography and palaeoecology. She received her PhD in 1994 from the University of Bordeaux, France. She studies marine sediments from around the world to interpret past environmental changes, based on vegetation tracers (pollen grains) and sea-surface conditions (dinoflagellate cysts). She is particularly interested in the causes of abrupt climate changes in the past, from the tropics to the poles.
^**********R. Eugene Turner is a faculty member at Louisiana State University. He received his PhD in 1974 from the University of Georgia, USA. His research interests include coastal oceanography and wetlands.
^***********Nancy Rabalais is executive director and professor of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Chauvin, Louisiana. Since the mid-1980s, Rabalais has been the driving force behind identifying and characterising the dynamics of the large hypoxic region in the Gulf of Mexico, which receives excess nutrients from the Mississippi River. She serves on numerous boards and panels for federal agencies and national organisations. She has received numerous awards, most recently the John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur ‘Genius’ Award (2012). She graduated with a PhD from the University of Texas in 1983.
^************Kazumi Matsuoka is a professor emeritus at Nagasaki University. Although retired since 2013, he continues scientific research on fossil and modern dinoflagellates - in particular, cyst-motile form relationships of both naked and thecate dinoflagellates.