Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Free Access to SAGE Geography Journals - Register here

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
The Holocene
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Forman, S. L.
Right arrow Articles by Weihe, R. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?

The Holocene occurrence of reindeer on Franz Josef Land, Russia

Steven L. Forman

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois at Chicago, 845 W. Taylor Street, Chicago, Illinois 60607, USA

David Lubinski

Richard R. Weihe

Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University, 1090 Carmack Road, Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Reindeer are absent historically on the high Arctic islands of Franz Josef Land, Russia. However, shed antlers are common on unglaciated forelands on Hooker, Scot Keltie and Alexandra Land Islands in the archipelago. Radiocarbon dating of 19 new antler remains combined with seven ages reported previously demonstrate the presence of reindeer between c. >6400 and 1300 cal. BP. Reindeer probably occupied Franz Josef Land for much of the Holocene reflecting sufficient forage associated with summer air temperatures $1°C warmer than today and retracted glaciers and snowfields. A prominent neoglacial advance at c. 1000 cal. BP is coincident with inferred extinction of reindeer. Late twentieth-century warming and associated glacier retraction may provide environmental conditions for the immigration of reindeer to Franz Josef Land and other high Arctic areas, similar to earlier in the Holocene.

Key Words: Holocene • reindeer • radiocarbon dating • environmental change • high Arctic • Russia

The Holocene, Vol. 10, No. 6, 763-768 (2000)
DOI: 10.1191/09596830095015
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?