Holocene forest dynamics and climate changes in the Abisko area, northern Sweden : the Sonesson model of vegetation history reconsidered and confirmed

A new palaeoecological and palaeoclimatic project in the subalpine Abisko area, N Scandes, founded upon the pollen zone system defined by Sonesson is described. This model of vegetation history has been confirmed, although the chronology is partly revised. Sonesson's pollen diagrams are combined with new results from a lake sediment sequence at the tree-limit, which include sedimentologic, mineral magnetic, oxygen isotope and plant macrofossil studies. Since the deglaciation at c9000-8500 14C yr BP the vegetation of the Abisko area has generally been dominated by a subalpine birch Betula woodland tundra. The cliamte has generally been subarctic-oceanic since the deglaciation except for the period c.5500-3500 BP when temperate-continental conditions prevailed. This climatic development differs from the situation in the central Scandes