Early-Holocene vegetation of northern Iceland: pollen and plant macrofossil evidence from the Skagi peninsula

• Published in: The Holocene
• Main Author: Rundgren, Mats
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 1998
• Subjects: Paleontology; Earth-Surface Processes; Ecology; Archeology; Global and Planetary Change; Saksunarvatn; Betula nana; Empetrum nigrum; Iceland; North Atlantic; Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/095968398669995117; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1191/095968398669995117

Pollen and plant macrofossil records from two lakes on northernmost Skagi peninsula, northern Iceland, reflect a progressive closing of the vegetation cover during the early Holocene. This development was connected with the succession from an initial herb-tundra phase characterized by Oxyria digyna, Poaceae and Caryophyllaceae, through an intermediate dwarf-shrub phase dominated by Salix and Empetrum nigrum,toa shrub and dwarf-shrub phase with Juniperus communis, Betula nana, Salix and Poaceae. This development is similar to that recorded at other sites in northern Iceland, both with respect to the taxa involved and the timing of transitions between successional phases, which suggests that early-Holocene vegetational development in northern Iceland was forced by broad-scale climatic changes. The palaeobotanical data suggest a gradual early-Holocene warming in northern Iceland, which probably was connected with northward displacements of Atlan tic waters and North Atlantic air masses. The deposition of the Saksunarvatn ash at 9000 BP caused a transitory phase of vegetational succession on northernmost Skagi.