UPPSALA UNIVERSITET: Institutionen för geovetenskaper: Paleobiologi: Tidigare anställda

Holocene palynological data suggests that spruce spread into eastern Sweden from Finland around 2000-3000 years ago. However, at this time the Swedish Baltic coastline was moving rapidly eastwards, and human influences on the landscape were increasing. Recently, radiocarbon-dated mid-Holocene spruce macrofossils have been discovered in the mountains of western Sweden (Kullman: J. Ecol 83, 439-447 [1995]), suggesting a much earlier spread, possibly at levels of abundance below those ordinarily detected by pollen analyses. This project is collecting new sediment cores from small lakes in eastern and central Sweden, chosen with respect to the changing coastline. The cores will be radiocarbon-dated and analysed for fossil pollen and stomata in sufficient detail to resolve the timing of arrival of spruce in relation to both the changing shoreline and human impacts.