Dinocyst records from deep cores reveal a reversed salinity gradient in the Caspian Sea at 8.5–4.0 cal ka BP

Understanding the long-term environmental forcings driving Caspian Sea (CS) water levels is of utmost importance, not only owing to its large size, or to the surrounding developing economies but also to improve global climate models and forecasts. However, Late Quaternary CS level changes and their amplitude are mostly documented from incomplete coastal sediment records. Because of the CS idiosyncrasies, that behaves neither as a sea nor as a lake, the methods used to reconstruct water levels in the global ocean or in freshwater lakes do not always apply.