Pollen Analysis of A Buried Arctic-Alpine Brown Soil from Vestre Memurubreen, Jotunheimen, Norway: Evidence for Postglacial High-Altitude Vegetation Change

Abstract

Pollen-analytical investigation of an arctic-alpine Brown Soil buried below a terminal moraine of Little Ice Age (18th century A.D.) date at Vestre Memurubreen in the eastern Jotunheimen Mountains, southern Norway, has presented new information on postglacial vegetation change at high altitude in the region. The pollen record shows the substitution of a low-alpine lichen heath dominated by Empetrum and Vaccinium by a mid-alpine Salix herbacea–dominated community, reflecting an altitudinal depression of the local vegetation belts. This depression is related to climatic deterioration either at the onset of the Little Ice Age, possibly ca. 12th century A.D./13th century A.D., or at an earlier, as yet undated, period.