A lacustrine record of the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary in southernmost Greenland

Summary, in English

A sediment core from a lake in the Kap Farvel area on South Greenland was analysed with respect to pollen and microfossil content, loss-on-ignition, magnetic susceptibility and radiocarbon age. The aim was to reconstruct the limnic arid terrestrial changes taking place at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary. Organic sedimentation started between 12 200 and 12 800 cal yr B.P. Break-up of sea-ice around Kap Farvel, as indicated by the appearance of marine dinoflagellates (Hystrix), took place some hundred years after the transition into Preboreal. The pollen analysis indicates that the area was barren during the Younger Dryas and that the Holocene vegetation establishment was slightly delayed.