PALYNOSTRATIGRAPHY OF UPPER QUATERNARY DEPOSITS OF SVERDRUP-ISLAND, THE KARA SEA

New palynologic data and radiocarbon datings, which were obtained for a buried peat-bog from Sverdrup Island, allowed the landscape-climatic environments to be reconstructed for this region for the period 9.5 - 12 ka ago. A new approach to the problem of Late Quaternary glaciatio n on the Kara Sea shelf was also made feasible. Three stages were dist inguished in the evolution of the vegetation and climate: a relatively warm and humid climate corresponding to the Allerod, with tundra-type vegetation; a cold and arid climate corresponding to the late Dryas, with dominating xerophytes; and a stage of the warmest climate corresp onding to the beginning of the Preboreal interval of the Holocene, wit h dominating trees and bushes. The available data indicated the absenc e of a late Pleistocene (Sartanian) ice sheet on the Kara Sea shelf.