Animal Invasion of Glacial and Late Glacial Terrestrial Environments in Scandinavia

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Abstract
The problem of geographic origin and immigration routes of biota occurring in north-western Scandinavia in the latter part of the Wtirm glaciation is intimately connected with the development of the environments after the culmination of the Full Glacial period. Analyses of environments in Antarctica and their biotic communities give certain clues. In nunataks and temporary oases surrounded by ice there might have existed ecosystems, viz. chalico-systems and bryo-systems, consisting of a few species resistant to conditions of extreme cold. In the Quaternary biotic cycle the cold desert changed into open mineral ground saturated with melt water and characterized by extensive solifluction. Amelioration of the climate permitted a succession of plants and animals. Low environmental resistance and wide ecological amplitude resulted in population explosions and rapid dispersal. A considerable part of the element supposed to have survived the Wiirm glaciation in refugia was greatly favored by such environmental conditions. Its invasion from peri-glacial areas seems probable. In certain cases the North Sea land might have played a role as a springboard. Part of this element has been favored in the present time by man''s destruction of the environment and is more or less widely dispersed. Other species survive in certain unchanged extreme habitats like the bare rock areas of the island Oland in the Baltic Sea and certain coastal regions.

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