Subfossil pine dates and pollen diagrams from northern Fennoscandia

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Abstract
As a continuation of earlier work on the Holocene history of the pine forests of northern Fennoscandia, new finds of subfossil pine (Pinus silvestris) are reported from sites in Enontekiö, northwestern Finnish Lapland, and at one location in the Lyngenfjorden area in North Norway. Two pollen diagrams from lake sediments are also presented, one from near Kilpisjärvi in Finland, the other from close to Skibotn in Norway. The megafossil, pollen, and radiocarbon data provide a more or less consistent picture of the history of the pine forests of northern Fennoscandia. Pine spread to the Kilpisjärvi and Lyngen area around 7500–7000 B.P., and the pine forests were at their maximum there from about 7000 to 4000 B.P. Their subsequent gradual decline meant a retreat of the pine limit by some 70 km or so. Discussions are provided on climatic variations in the area, and on possible further research into these and other palaeo-ecological changes.