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of continuous terrestrial sequences and insufficient
chronological control of the available data (Ingólfs-
son, 1991; Ingólfsson and Norddahl, 1994).
The first continuous Icelandic palaeoenvironmen-
tal record extending beyond 10,000 BP was presented
by Björck et al. (1992) from the Skagi peninsula (Fig.
2). Their pollen data from Lake Torfadalsvatn reflect
the transition from a grass-dominated pioneer vegeta-
tion to a more dense and diverse herb tundra at c.
9900 BP. This vegetational change, and a coincident
rise in lake productivity, was attributed to the regional
warming at the Younger Dryas-Holocene transition,
and the subsequent expansion of dwarf-shrub and
shrub taxa was taken to indicate that climatic condi-
tions similar to those of today were established in
northern Iceland already in the Preboreal Chrono-
zone. The results presented by Björck et al. (1992) in-
dicated that further studies of Skagi lake sediments
could provide important data on the palaeoenviron-
mental development in Iceland during the Pleis-
tocene-Holocene transition. Therefore, a project was
initiated with the aim to produce a detailed recon-
struction of Late Weichselian and early Holocene
changes of vegetation, climate and relative sea level
on the Skagi peninsula. The results from this project
have been presented in a series of papers (Rundgren,
1995; Rundgren et al., 1997; Björck et al., 1997; Ing-
ólfsson et al, 1997; Rundgren, 1998; Rundgren and
Fig. 2. (A) Map of Iceland with present-day glaciers. The area covered by the map in B is indicated. (B) Map of the Skagi penin-
sula and adjacent fjords. The area covered by the map in C is indicated. (C) Map of the northernmost part of the Skagi peninsu-
la with the studied sites and mapped beach ridges. Dots within lakes mark coring sites. From Rundgren et al. (1997). - (A) Kort
af Islandi sem sýnir núverandi jökla. Svœðið sem sýnt er á inynd B er afmarkað með ramma. (B) Kort afSkaga og aðliggjandi
fjörðum. Svæðið sem sýnt er á mynd C er afmarkað með ramma. (C) Kort afnyrsta hluta Skaga ásamt staðsetningu vatna sem
rannsökuð voru og kortlögðum strandlínum. Punktar í vötnum sýna staðsetningu setkjarna (Rundgren o.fl. 1997).
JÖKULL, No. 47, 1999
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