Environmental Change in Iceland: Past and Present: (7 Glaciology and Quaternary Geology)

3 new biota and extinction of others, and extensive soil erosion reaching almost catastrophic proportions have led to desertification of many upland areas and abandonment by local populations. The role of climatic change as opposed to deforestation and sheep grazing in creating these new environments has proved a further issue of great controversy. While our understanding of historic environmental changes remains inadequate, our knowledge of processes that are modifying the present-day landscape is also sparse and selective. Little is known of active periglacial processes, slope instabilities, and rates of soil erosion by slope wash and aeolian transport. Coastal processes of erosion and beach formation have been studied only locally. Most of our information on recent or active processes comprises records of glacier fluctuations, volcanic eruptions and jOkulhlaup events, but sti11little is known of the mechanisms and processes of landscape change effected by these events. This volume of papers, based on a conference sponsored by the Quaternary Research Association and the Geologists Association and held at the University of Aberdeen in April 1989, addresses many of these crucial uncertainties regarding environmental changes in Iceland from the Lateglacial onwards. The papers make a major contribution to dispelling many earlier uncertainties and clarifying areas of controversy. Many of the papers challenge traditional and poorly supported ideas, replacing them with hypotheses based on new data and new insights derived from the expansion of wider scientific expertise and theory. The volume focuses on three major areas of research in particular.

Table of Contents:
1: Lateglacial and Early Holocene Environmental Changes.- A review of the Late Weichselian and early Holocene glacial and environmental history of Iceland.- A review of the glaciation maximum concept and the deglaciation of Eyjafjörður, north Iceland.- The Weichselian glacial history of West Melrakkaslétta, north-eastern Iceland.- A revised model of Weichselian déglaciation in south and south west Iceland.- Sea-level change in Vestfirðir, north west Iceland.- Evidence from south west Iceland of low sea level in early Flandrian times.- 2: Environmental Changes during the Postglacial.- 2.1 Biotic Changes, Climatic Change and Human Settlement.- ‘If this is a Refugium, why are my feet so bloody cold?’ The origins of the Icelandic biota in the light of recent research.- Faunal change or taphonomic problem? A comparison of modern and fossil insect faunas from south east Iceland.- Tephrochronology and late Holocene soil erosion in south Iceland.- A study of farm abandonment in two regions of Iceland.- 2.2 Glacier Fluctuations.- New observations on the postglacial glacial history of Tröllaskagi, northern Iceland.- Holocene glacial history of the Hörgárdalur area, Tröllaskagi, northern Iceland.- Dating recent glacier advances in the Svarfaðardalur/Skíðadalur area of northern Iceland by means of a new lichen curve.- Lichenometric dating, lichen population studies and Holocene glacial history in Tröllaskagi, northern Iceland.- 3: Recent Landscape Change.- An assessment of some of the factors involved in recent landscape change in Iceland.- Glacier fluctuations and rock glaciers in Tröllaskagi, northern Iceland, with special reference to 1946–1986.- The origin and evolution of Holocene sandur deposits in areas of jökulhlaup drainage, Iceland.- Sediment andsolute yield from the Jökulsá á Sólheimasandi glacierized river basin, southern Iceland.

Review :
It is highly recommended to anyone interested in the study of northern climate, environment, and Quaternary history. Bulletin American Meteorological Society