Fróðskaparrit - 01.01.1998, Blaðsíða 300

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ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGEIN ICE-FREE GREENLAND: A REVIEW
Fig. 1. Map of Greenland ant northemmost Canada
showing the location ofplace names mentioned in the
text.
Mynd 1. Kort av Grønlandi og norðasta parti av
Kanada, sum vísir summi staðanøvn, ið eru nevnd í
tekstinum.
Larix groenlandii and Picea mariana grew
near Kap København in eastem North
Greenland (fig. 1). The flora that is dated to
2-2.5 million years, indicates a forrest-tun-
dra vegetation and an oceanic, subarctic cli-
mate, with a mean summer temperature
around 10-11°C (Bennike, 1990). The Kap
København Formation also contains a rich
and diverse insect fauna, with at least 210
species of beetles and four species of ants
(Bocher, 1995). Att present, no ants live in
Greenland, and the beetle fauna only com-
prises c. 33 species.
A number of Middle Pleistocene marine
interglacial occurrences are known from
West Greenland, but the dating and correla-
tion of these sites are uncertain (Kelly,
1986; Bennike etai, 1994), and they do not
provide evidence about non-marine envi-
ronments. In contrast, several interglacial
sites have been firmly dated to the last in-
terglacial stage by numerous luminescence
age determinations, and these sites provide
a detailed picture of terrestrial biotas (Ben-
nike and Bocher, 1992; 1994). Floras and
faunas from Jameson Land comprise many
sourthem extralimital species, such as tree
birch and alder, and the mean summer tem-
perature was c. 5°C higher than today (Ben-
nike and Bocher, 1994).
During the last glacial stage rather large
unglaciated areas were present in East and
North Greenland (e.g. Kelly and Bennike,
1992), but according to palaeotemperature
reconstructions from the Greenland ice
sheet, temperatures were much lower dur-
ing the temperature minimum of the last ice
age than earlier assumed (Dahl-Jensen et
al., 1998). It seems inescapable that very
few, if any, vascular plants or vertebrates
would be able to survive such exremely
harsh conditions.
At 11,500 cal. BP (calibrated years be-
fore present) the first small lowland areas in