vertebrate biota, reviewing evidence for the introduction of domesticated faunas and rapid and widespread changes to the island landscapes and environments as a result of pastoralism and the exploitation of marine resources. The former (Chapter 10) characterizes the patterns in bird dispersal and extinctions and extirpations and its conservation significance of the avian fauna, while the latter (Chapter 11) presents comprehensive evidence showing that farming and fishing were vital to subsistence and trade as well as being core to island and community identity in the past, roles they continue to play out to the current day.
The prospects for the future environmental systems of the region is addressed in Section IV. Ogilvie et al. (Chapter 12) use a rich historical dataset to provide an elegant perspective on the significance and importance of sea ice patterns and flows to both historical and contemporary communities. Fosaa (Chapter 13) returns to a biodiversity theme and reviews the influence of both climate change and direct human impact on the flora of Faroe, including the threats posed by introduced species pointing to elements in Faroese flora that are of some conservation concern. The policy and legislative frameworks for biodiversity and conservation in Iceland under a changing climate is evaluated in considerable detail by Hauksson (Chapter 13). Johnsen and Heide‐Jørgensen (Chapter 14) examine the natural environment and its biodiversity in Greenland during the present climate change, presenting observations of the biological response related to an increasing greenhouse effect and stratospheric ozone depletion with an emphasis on terrestrial plant ecology.
It is appropriate that we conclude this introduction with a tribute to one of the region's leading scientists for whom this volume was conceived. Professor Paul C. Buckland blended his early (doctoral) training from the related fields of archaeology and geology, work on tephrochronology of East Africa lakes, a detailed evaluation of the value of insect fossils in the interpretations of archaeological deposits across the world, into a unique, innovative and complementary skillset for examining the biological conundrum that was (and to some extent still is) the biogeography of the North Atlantic. Like many researchers and colleagues (several authors of chapters in this volume), both editors of this book have been small cogs in this body of research and benefitted greatly from Paul Buckland's supervision and tutorage as doctoral researchers. Having developed a love for the environments, plants, animals and people of the North Atlantic region in a research career spanning some four decades, this book and contributions within it are a fitting tribute to his unique contribution to our understanding of the biogeography of the region.
References
1 Andreasen, C. (1996). A survey of paleoeskimo sites in Northern East Greenland. In: The Paleo‐Eskimo Cultures of Greenland – New Perspectives in Greenlandic Archaeology (ed. B. Grønnow), 177–190. Copenhagen: Danish Polar Center Publications No. 1.
2 Arneborg, J. (2003). Norse Greenland: reflections on settlement and depopulation. In: Contact, Continuity, and Collapse. The Norse Colonization of the North Atlantic (ed. J.H. Barrett), 163–181. Turnhout: Brepols.
3 Bennike, O. and Böcher, J. (1994). Land biotas of the last interglacial/glacial cycle on Jameson Land, East Greenland. Boreas 23: 479–487.
4 Böcher, J. (1988). The Coleoptera of Greenland, vol. 26. Meddelelser om Grønland (Bioscience), 100 pp.
5 Böcher, J. (2012). Interglacial insects and their possible survival in Greenland during the last glacial stage. Boreas 41: 644–659.
6 Brochmann, C., Gabrielsen, T.M., Nordal, I. et al. (2003). Glacial survival or tabula rasa? The history of North Atlantic biota revisited. Taxon 52: 417–450.
7 Buckland, P.C. (1986). North Atlantic faunal connections – introduction or endemics? Entomologica Scandinavica 32: 7–29.
8 Buckland, P.C. and Dugmore, A. (1991). If this is a refugium, why are my feet so bloody cold? The origins of the Icelandic biota in the light of recent research. In: Environmental Change in Iceland Past and Present (eds. J.K. Maizels and C. Caseldine), 107–125. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
9 Buckland, P.C. and Panagiotakopulu, E. (2010). Reflections on North Atlantic Island Biogeography: a Quaternary entomological view. In: Dorete – Her Book:– Being a Tribute to Dorete Bloch and to Faroese Nature, Annales Societatis Scientiarum Færoensis Supplementum, vol. 52 (eds. S.‐A. Bengtson, P. Buckland, P.H. Enckell and A.M. Fosaa), 187–215. Tórshavn: Faroe University Press.
10 Buckland, P.C., Perry, D.W., Gíslason, G.M., and Dugmore, A.J. (1986). The pre‐landnám fauna of Iceland: a palaeontological contribution. Boreas 15: 173–184.
11 Church, M.J., Arge, S.V., Edwards, K.J. et al. (2013). The Vikings were not the first colonizers of the Faroe Islands. Quaternary Science Reviews 77: 228–232.
12 Coope, G.R. (1986). The invasion and colonization of the North Atlantic islands: a palaeoecological solution to a biogeographical problem. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B 314: 619–635.
13 Dahl, E. (1987). The nunatak theory reconsidered. Ecological Bulletin 38: 77–94.
14 Downes, J.A. (1988). The postglacial colonisation of the North Atlantic islands. Memoirs of the Entomological Society of Canada 144: 55–92.
15 Dugmore, A.J., McGovern, T.H., Vésteinsson, O. et al. (2012). Cultural adaptation, compounding vulnerabilities and conjunctures in Norse Greenland. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109: 3658–3663.
16 Edwards, K.J., Schofield, E., and Mauquoy, D. (2008). High resolution paleoenvironmental and chronological investigations of Norse landnám at Tasiusaq, Eastern Settlement, Greenland. Quaternary Research 69: 1–15.
17 Edwards, K.J., Erlendsson, E., and Schofield, J.E. (2011). Is there a Norse ‘footprint’ in North Atlantic pollen records? In: Viking Settlements and Society: Papers from the Sixteenth Viking Congress, Reykjavík and Reykholt, 16–23 August 2009 (eds. S. Sigmundsson, A. Holt, G. Sigurðsson, et al.), 65–82. Reykjavík: Hið íslenska fornleifafélag and University of Iceland Press.
18 Fitzhugh, W.W. and Ward, E.I. (2000). Vikings. The North Atlantic Saga. Washington: Smithsonian Institute.
19 Hermanns‐Audardóttir, M. (1991). The early settlement of Iceland. Norwegian Archaeological Review 24 (1): 1–9.
20 Hooker, J.D. (1862). Outline of the distribution of Arctic plants. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 23: 251–348.
21 Jensen, J. F. 2006. Stone Age of Qeqertarsuup Tunua (Disko Bugt) a regional analysis of the Saqqaq and Dorset cultures of Central West Greenland. Meddelelser om Grønland/Monographs on Greenland, Man & Society, Vol. 32, 272 pp.
22 Lindroth, C.H. (1931). Die Insekfauna Islands und ihre probleme. Zoologiska bidrag från Uppsala 13: 105–600.
23 Lindroth, C.H. (1957). The Faunal Connections between Europe and North America. New York: Wiley.
24 Lindroth, C.H. (1968). The Icelandic form of Carabus problematicus Hbst (Col. Carabidae) – A statistical treatment. Opscula Entomologica 33: 157–182.
25 Löve, A. and Löve, D. (eds.) (1963). North Atlantic Biota and Their History. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 430 pp.
26 Maggs, C.A., Castilho, R., Foltz, D. et al. (2008). Evaluating signatures of glacial refugia from North Atlantic benthic marine taxa. Ecology 89 (Suppl): S108–S122.
27 McGovern, T.H., Fridriksson, A., Church, M. et al. (2007). Landscapes of settlement in northern Iceland: historical ecology of human impact and climate fluctuations on the millennial scale. American Anthropologist 109: 27–51.
28 Panagiotakopulu, E. (2014). Hitchhiking across the North Atlantic – insect immigrants, origins, introductions and extinctions. Quaternary