The subfossil occurrence of Mytilus edulis L. in central East Greenland

• Published in: Boreas
• Main Authors: HJORT, CHRISTIAN, FUNDER, SVEND
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1974
• Subjects: Svalbard; Greenland; East Greenland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1974.tb00664.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1502-3885.1974.tb00664.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1502-3885.1974.tb00664.x

The subfossil occurrence of Mytilus edulis in central East Greenland has been C 14 ‐dated to roughly between 8000 B.P. and 5500 B.P.; compared with other areas this is a short period. Its immigration coincides with the final deglaciation of the innermost fjords, and its disappearance is contemporaneous with an increase in cold‐climate plants, as shown by pollen spectra. It is suggested that it immigrated from the Svalbard area rather than from southeast Greenland, and that the central East Greenland fjord zone forms an isolated oasis, where more southerly species like Mytilus and Chlamys islandica can or could live, even if this was not possible along the surrounding and more hostile outer coasts. The reason for the absence of Mytilus edalis from the region today is probably not the local climate.