Metabarcoding of lake sediments have been shown to reveal current and past biodiversity, but little is known about the degree to which taxa growing in the vegetation are represented in environmental DNA (eDNA) records. We analysed composition of lake and catchment vegetation and vascular plant eDNA at 11 lakes in northern Norway. Out of 489 records of taxa growing within 2 m from the lake shore, ...

In this paper my aim is to read and understand the journal of Gerrit de Veer from the last journey of William Barents to the Arctic Regions in 1596 and the journal of captain Junge on his hunting trip from Tromsø to Svalbard in 1834.It is nearly 240 years between this to voyages. The first journal is known as the earliest report from the arctic era. Gerrit de Veer adds instructive copper engravings ...

Scandinavia was one of the last geographic areas in Europe to become habitable for humans after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). However, the routes and genetic composition of these postglacial migrants remain unclear. We sequenced the genomes, up to 57× coverage, of seven hunter-gatherers excavated across Scandinavia and dated from 9,500–6,000 years before present (BP). Surprisingly, among the ...

What drives ecosystem buildup, diversity, and stability? We assess species arrival and ecosystem changes across 16 millennia by combining regional-scale plant sedimentary ancient DNA from Fennoscandia with near-complete DNA and trait databases. We show that postglacial arrival time varies within and between plant growth forms. Further, arrival times were mainly predicted by adaptation to temperature, ...

Taxonomic identification of whale bones found during archaeological excavations is problematic due to their typically fragmented state. This difficulty limits understanding of both the past spatio-temporal distributions of whale populations and of possible early whaling activities. To overcome this challenge, we performed zooarchaeology by mass spectrometry on an unprecedented 719 archaeological and ...

Biosecurity measures are commonly used to prevent the introduction of non-native species to natural environments globally, yet the efficacy of practices is rarely tested under operational conditions. A voluntary biosecurity measure was trialled in the Norwegian high Arctic following concern that non-native species might be transferred to the region on the footwear of travellers. Passengers aboard ...

Studies from a Sámi settlement on the island of Iinnasuolu in the region of Southern Troms, Northern Norway, where a large number of traces in the outlying fields from earlier settlements are localised, were the point of departure for several studies on the past and present of the composite history of this settlement. A study of how the local Sámi place names were established locally, and on the ...

Som et ledd i undertegnedes PhD-prosjekt “The consolidation of farming in northern Norway” ble det den 26.07.2012 gjort befaringer og mindre prøvegravninger på Flakstad Prestegård i Flakstad kommune. Stedet ligger helt nord på Flakstadøya på en sandstrandflate mellom fjellet og havet og rett nord for Flakstad kirke fra 1700-tallet. Jordsmonnet består av fin flygesand og preges der hvor det ikke ...

<i>Psoroma inflatum</i> sp. nov. is described from mountains in Canterbury and Otago in New Zealand’s South Island. It is related to <i>P. hypnorum</i>, but differs in having a strongly inflated and glossy thallus. The squamules are prostrate, ascending or erect, and form brown, coarsely coralloid patches. They lack a dorsiventral morphology and anatomy, in contrast to other Psoroma species, except ...

The species <i>Psoroma spinuliferum</i> is described here as new to science. It is only known from the holotype on a <i>Picea sitchensis</i> trunk near a sea-shore in southern, coastal Alaska. The species is distinct in having short, brittle, spinule-like hairs on both apothecium margins, thalline squamules and on pulvinate to coarsely coralloid cephalodia with emerald-colored <i>Nostoc</i> photobionts. ...