Early Holocene presence of Norway spruce (Picea abies) on a high mountain nunatak in the Swedish Scandes: A further contribution to the biotic composition of the first deglaciated landscape and a link between past and present

Leif Kullman *

Department of Ecology and Environmental Science, Umeå University, S-901 87 Umeå.
 
Research Article
International Journal of Science and Research Archive, 2022, 06(01), 200–207.
Article DOI: 10.30574/ijsra.2022.6.1.0127
 
Publication history: 
Received on 22 April 2022; revised on 28 May 2022; accepted on 30 May 2022
 
Abstract: 
A megafossil wood remnant of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) was retrieved from a high-elevation nunatak in the southern Swedish Scandes. The site was nearly 600 m higher than the present-day treeline. These circumstances comply with analogous earlier recoveries, indicating presence of spruce at high elevations in the Scandes, several thousands of years prior to inferences made by pollen analysis. Radiocarbon-dating yielded a median age of 9300 cal a BP. This result adds firm detail and adheres to ongoing reappraisal of the structure and biodiversity of the late-glacial and early Holocene mountain landscape, in the light of growing megafossil and molecular genetic evidence.
 
Keywords: 
Picea abies; Megafossils; Holocene; Nunataks; Palaeoclimate; Radiocarbon-dating; Swedish Scandes
 
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