Early- to mid-Holocene vegetation development in northern Iceland: project outline and preliminary results

Iceland is a key site for the study of Holocene vegetation and climate variations due to its location in the North Atlantic. The aim of the project is to reconstruct the history of Holocene vegetation development in Austur-Húnavatnssýsla, northern Iceland. Using pollen and macrofossils, patterns of vegetation change in three locations will be reconstructed, forming a transect from coastal extremes to the highland margin. The palynological and macrofossil data will be combined with a robust regional chronology, constructed by combining tephra layers with radiocarbon-dated macrofossils. Available data covering the vegetation history of Iceland are scarce. This study will improve the understanding of how environmental factors have driven vegetation development during the Holocene. Pollen analysis has been carried out on a section of a lacustrine core from the first study site of this project, a lowland site in Svínadalur valley. The analysed section of the core covers the period from Younger Dryas to the mid-Holocene. The results show a transition from pioneering vegetation during the cold period of Younger Dryas to the birch forests of the Holocene Thermal Maximum. An initial expansion of birch and gradual closing of vegetation cover was halted during early-Holocene, probably due to a period of cooling climate. An age model for the core has yet to be constructed, however this change in vegetation may be the result of cooling during the 8.2 ka event that has previously been recorded in proxies from Icelandic lakes. This cooling event has however not been seen in Icelandic terrestrial biotic palaeorecords before. The impact of this event seen in the Svínadalur core may underscore a vulnerability of the early-Holocene terrestrial ecosystem to climatic fluctuations. The study is funded by the Eimskip University fund, University of Iceland Research Fund and Landsvirkjun's Energy Research Fund, the study is also supported by the INTIMATE EU COST action in the form of a Short-Term Scientific Mission.