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The Holocene occurrence of reindeer on Franz Josef Land, Russia

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

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