Palaeoecology of Skálafjørður, the Faroe Islands

A sediment sequence from Skálafjørður on Eysturoy, Faroe Islands, has been analysed for macroscopical plant- and animal remains. The sequence contains remains of a number of water plants and animals that live in lakes, and no marine fossils, thus the sequence was deposited in a lacustrine environment, and the present day threshold fjord was a lake. A preliminary chronological framework suggest that the lake formed just after deglaciation at around 11,300 calendar years before present, and the threshold was inundated by the sea around 8800 cal. years before present, after which marine conditions were established. The flora and fauna comprise a number of plants and animals that are new to the fossil biota of the Faroe Islands, and two fresh water bryozoans that have not been recorded from the archipelago at the present.