Olkiluoto Biosphere Description 2006 (pdf) (4.1 MB) - Posiva

32Figure 4-3. Ice sheet/glacier extension from the Eemian interglacial to the start of themain phase of the Weichselian glaciation (Lundqvist 1992).Temperatures at 9 ky BP were probably close to the present and summers were likelywarmer. The climate was its warmest at 6-5 ky BP and after that became generallycolder and, from about 2.5 ky BP, more humid (Anttila et al. 1999). Olkiluoto Islandemerged from the Baltic Sea about 3.0 to 2.5 ky BP (Eronen & Lehtinen 1996).Temperature oscillation has also occurred in more recent past. For example, the periodbetween years 1500 to 1850 is known as the Little Ice Age due to the lower averagetemperatures and fluctuating weather. In contrast, the temperatures have risenthroughout most of the twentieth century (Anttila et al. 1999).Past VegetationStudies of pollen, insect and plant fossils have led to estimates of the nature and distributionof the vegetation spread over continental Finland during and after the last deglaciation(Kakkuri & Virkki 2004). The order in which the vegetation evolved after the