PHYTOGEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEMS IN SVALBARD 105 



The problem of how and when this connection has taken place is still a 

 matter of dispute and only a little can be contributed to help solve it. It seems 

 to me that time is the only factor that can give a satisfactory explanation of 

 these problems. 



As early as 1933, Lynge, on the basis of the distribution of some Arctic 

 lichens, concluded that ice-free refugia had existed on the north coast of 

 Spitsbergen (Lynge, 1939). He accordingly supposed that the hchens were 

 relic plants of a very high age. Another interesting fact concerning these 

 north coast lichens is that when occurring in Scandinavian mountains, they 

 are not at all High Alpine, but more or less continental Subalpine. Lynge 

 {loc. cit.) found no other explanation than "that the area, or a part of it, 

 should have been ice-free refugia during the last glaciation, perhaps all through 

 the time subsequent to the Tertiary age, and that these lichens should be 

 relics which persisted, at least, from the last Interglacial down to the present 

 time". 



In 1869 Fries had already launched the hypothesis that some of the Svalbard 

 plants were of a relic nature, and several later authors, among them Nord- 

 hagen (1935), have discussed the possible migration tracks for the Scandinavian 

 West Arctic plants. In my opinion, the close relationship shown between the 

 floras of the two areas makes it most likely that in an earlier geological epoch 

 there existed a connection between northern Scandinavia and the islands of 

 the European Arctic. Later geological conditions have split up this continuous 

 area into several isolated ones. The question as to when this happened remains 

 still unsolved, but is of special importance from a phytogeographical point of 

 view. 



Nansen (1920) suggested that the Barents Sea area of the Late Tertiary 

 period was situated 400-500 meters higher than today. Orvin (1940, p. 54) 

 says: "From the presence of large submarine valleys in the Barents Sea we 

 may conclude that this area in comparatively recent times has been at a level 

 about 500 meters above the present. This happened probably in the latter 

 part of the Tertiary." 



Horn and Orvin (1928, p. 44) also agree with Nansen that the elevation 

 mentioned could have existed in the Tertiary period. However, one important 

 feature concerning the Bear Island needs emphasizing: during the Pleistocene 

 glaciations this island was more or less covered with an ice sheet and was 

 partly submerged. But although the island was covered with ice during the 

 deepest submergence, the mountains in its southern part protruded above the 

 glacier (Horn and Orvin, loc. cit., p. 53 and Fig. 44). 



Today the Barents Sea (Fig. 2) is a shallow body of water with large areas 

 less than 200 m deep, especially to the east. Perhaps a continuous area of land 

 once stretched from northernmost western Europe over the Barents Sea east 

 to Novaya Zemlya and west to the other Arctic islands around the Spitsbergen 

 Archipelago. This land area must have offered possibilities for plant migration 



