LAND BIOTAS OF THE LAST INTERGLACIAL GLACIAL CYCLE ON JAMESON LAND, EAST GREENLAND

Macrofossil plant and insect remains from nearshore marine sediments i n Jameson Land, central East Greenland show that the land biotas of th e last interglacial stage, the Langelandselv stage, were more diverse than those of the Holocene. Rich dwarf shrub heaths with a diverse ass emblage of ericaceous plants occupied low land areas with copses of Be tula pubescens on sheltered sites. Many southern extra-limital species were present, and the mean summer temperature was c. 5 degrees C high er than today. The subarctic bioclimatic zone was displaced from south ernmost Greenland/Iceland to central East Greenland. The diverse beetl e fauna was of palaearctic affinity and strikingly different from the Plio-Pleistocene and the Holocene Greenlandic beetle faunas. A few fos sil assemblages from the Hugin So Interstade, which is correlated with oxygen isotope stage 5c (early last glacial stage), point to poor, pe rhaps entirely herbaceous vegetation with a mean summer temperature th at was perhaps 3-4 degrees C lower than today.