Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1998, Page 254

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EARLY HOLOCENE INVESTIGATIONS AT SAKSUNARDALUR
AND THE ORIGINS OF THE FAROESE BIOTA
ma would have been similar to the ice-free
dry areas of Antarctica, where there is no
life beyond lichens, algae and microfungi
in the surface of the rock. The hypothesis of
long term survival in situ, however still has
some adherents, despite the lack of endem-
ic speces.
In the long term, however, any theoreti-
cal model can be supported or negated by
recourse to the fossil record. The history of
the flora has been considered by Jóhansen
(1985), and Enckell (1985) has examined
several elements in the invertebrate fauna.
The fossil record of the Coleoptera was in-
cluded by Buckland (1988) in his overview
of the origins of North Atlantic island bio-
ta, although the detail of the various sites
was not included in that essentially synthet-
ic study. Coope (1986) had favoured a mod-
el in which the primary immigration of
much of the plant and animal assemblage
took place during a short ice rafting event
from Scotland during the initial warming of
the Lateglacial, ca 12 500 radiocarbon
years ago, whilst Buckland and his co-
workers (1988; Buckland etal., 1986a) use
a similar ice rafting model, although pre-
ferring a west Norwegian origin and plac-
ing it during the phase of rapid warming
which opened the present interglacial some
10 000 radiocarbon years ago. Enckell
(1985) agrees with Buckland, but indicates
the Scottish affinities of much of the inver-
tebrate fauna. Recent work on Lateglacial
sediments in northern Iceland (Bjórk et al.,
1997; Rundgren, 1997) could be taken to
indicate both Lateglacial and earliest
Holocene phases of immigration, although
the final cold stage of the Younger Dryas
Fig. 1. Location map ofthe Faroes, showing
Saksunardalur.
Mynd 1. Støðukort av Føroyum, sum vísir
Saksunardal.
would have extinguished all but the most
hardy cold stenotherms.
In the Laroes, the extent of the Late
Weichselian and Younger Dryas ice sheet
has only recently become the subject of de-
tailed geomorphological research (e.g.
Humlum et al., 1996), and there are still no
published palynological or other fossil
records through the Lateglacial into the
Holocene. The absence of human settle-
ment until sometime late in the first millen-
nium AD (Jóhansen, 1985; Arge, 1989),
however, means that the fossil record for
most of the Holocene lacks anthropogenic
elements, and a baseline can be established
from which to view the development of the
biota.