Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1998, Page 138

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Environmental Change in North Atlantic
Islands, Tórshavn 17-20 May 1998
Umhvørvisbroytingar á oyggjum í Norðurhøvum,
Tórshavn 17-20 mai 1998
The islands in the northern Atlantic, and certain coastal parts in the area have, in geologi-
cal terms, been free of ice only for a relatively short time after the Weichsel glaciation.
Some of these areas are also the parts of Europe most recently settled by Man. Fishing
and hunting were until recently the dominating subsistence activities and agriculture al-
ways played a secondary role.
This implies, first, that periglacial land forms and patterns can still be easily seen and
interpreted and second, that human activities have only to a minor degree transformed the
landscape, as compared to continental Europe.
Chronological studies are furthermore facilitated by a number of datable tephra layers
from Icelandic volcanic eruptions, and by the rather sudden vegetational and faunal
changes occurring at Landnám, as evidenced in the palynological record.
This geological and historical background formed an ideal setting for the symposium on
Environmental Change in North Atlantic Islands, held in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, on 17
to 20 May 1998. The topics spanned the whole time period from the Weichsel glaciation
to the present, and the studies presented covered the whole area from Greenland in the west
to Scandinavia in the east and from Spitsbergen in the north to Scotland in the south.
Financial support for the symposium was received from the North Atlantic Biocultural
Organization, the Nordic Ecological Society Oikos, the Department of Culture and Edu-
cation of the Faroese Government, and the Faroese Museum of Natural History. We ex-
tended our heartfelt thanks to them all for their support.