Holocene vegetation history at Vätsäri, Inari Lapland, northeastern Finland, with special reference to Betula

• Published in: The Holocene
• Main Authors: Mäkelä, Eeva, Hyvärinen, Hannu
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2000
• Subjects: Paleontology; Earth-Surface Processes; Ecology; Archeology; Global and Planetary Change; Inari; Lapland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/095968300674642885; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1191/095968300674642885

A Holocene sediment series from a lake in the northern birch forest region of eastern Finnish Lapland was studied pollen-analytically. In addition to conventional pollen analysis, birch pollen measurements were carried out. Betula pollen diameters were measured systematically. The resulting size-frequency distributions were analysed statistically to infer their species composition and to reconstruct the local history of birch. The results indicate pine arrival about 7500 14 C years BP. Even during its optimum period of 7000–6000 BP, pine cover seems to have been thin and discontinuous. Pine and birch started to retreat soon after the pine optimum. In the interpretation of the birch pollen-size frequency distributions, no continuous record of Betula tortuosa was found. B. pendula seems to have had a more northerly distribution in the past than it has today.