Fig 1.
The star shows the Ötzi discovery site situated only 92m inside Italy.
Fig 2.
Looking down westwards to the Ötzi site.
The monument, an obelisk, can be discerned just left of centre, September 2007. The Ötzi site was free of ice. All the ground is well above the nival zone upwards from 3,000m to the summit of Finailspitze at 3,514m.
Fig 3.
The Ötzi site still iced up, late August 2000.
The footprints in the snow give an indication of scale. The meltwater goes to the Danube drainage.
Fig 4.
These led to the deposition of flowering plant remains at the Ötzi discovery site according to Heiss and Oeggl [14].
Fig 5.
Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of all bryophytes retrieved from 200 samples of the recovery site: Bryophytes occurring on the site (local) are grouped at the right side, whereas those transported to the site (extralocal) are disposed left.
Only the Iceman´s intestine samples (red square) are displayed, all other samples are left out to avoid overcrowding. The first three axes of the PCA accounted 80.8% of the variance in the species data (axis1: 70.1%, axis2: 6.4% and axis3: 4.3%). The few names in red are those mosses recovered from the Iceman’s alimentary tract. The formal bryophyte names (in blue) are abbreviated and mean: Amb_ser = Amblystegium serpens, And_alp = Andreaea alpestris, And_cos = Andreaea costae, And_rup = Andreaea rupestris, Ano_vit = Anomodon viticulosus, Ant_cur = Antitrichia curtipendula, Apo_rev = Apomarsupella revoluta, Aul_pal = Aulacomnium palustre, Bar_ith = Bartramia ithyphylla, Bry_alp = Bryum alpinum, Bry_cap = Bryum capillare, Cep_bic = Cephalozia bicuspidata, Con_tet = Conostomum tetragonum, Dic_sco = Dicranum scoparium, Dip_tax = Diplophyllum taxifolium, Dis_cap = Distichium capillaceum, Dit_flex = Ditrichum flexicaule, Enc_spp = Encalypta indet, Gri_alp = Grimmia alpestris, Gri_ano = Grimmia anodon, Gri_elo = Grimmia elongata, Gri_fun = Grimmia funalis, Gri_inc = Grimmia incurva, Gri_mol = Grimmia mollis, Gri_tri = Grimmia triformis, Grimmia = Grimmia indet Gym_cor = Gymnomitrion corallioides, Heps = liverworts, Het_dim = Heterocladium dimorphum, Hyl_spl = Hylocomium splendens, Hym_rec = Hymenostylium recurvirostrum, Hyp_cal = Hypnum callichroum, Hyp_cup = Hypnum cupressiforme, Hyp_rev = Hypnum revolutum, Hyp_vau = Hypnum vaucheri, Iso_pul = Isopterygiopsis pulchella, Leu_sci = Leucodon sciuroides, Lop_sud = Lophozia sudetica, Mar_bre = Marsupella brevissima, Mar_sph = Marsupella sphacelata, Mni_tho = Mnium thomsonii, Moss_st = moss stems, Nec_com = Neckera complanata, Nec_cri = Neckera crispa, Olio_her = Oligotrichum hercynicum, Para_ene = Paraleucobryum enerve, Pla_aff = Plagiomnium affine, Pla_oed = Plagiopus oederianus, Pog_urn = Pogonatum urnigerum, Poh_elo = Pohlia elongata, Poh_gla = Pohlia wahlenbergii var. glacialis, Poh_lud_ = Pohlia ludwigii, Pohlia_spp = Pohlia indet, Pol_alp = Polytrichum alpinum, Pol_pil = Polytrichum piliferum, Pol_sex = Polytrichum sexangulare, Pte_fil = Pterigynandrum filiforme, Pti_cil = Ptilidium ciliare, Rac_can = Racomitrium canescens s.l., Rac_lan = Racomitrium lanuginosum, Rhy_rug = Rhytidium rugosum, San_unc = Sanionia uncinata, Sar exa = Sarmentypnum exannulatum, Sca_sp = Scapania indet, Sci_sta = Sciurohypnum starkei (Brachythecium starkei), Sph_aff = Sphagnum affine, Sph_ter = Sphagnum teres, Tim_sp = Timmia indet, Tor_leu = Tortula leucostoma, War_flu = Warnstorfia fluitans.
Fig 6.
Redundancy analysis (RDA) of all bryophyte samples from the discovery site.
Arrows indicate explanatory variables, red ones refer to items of the Iceman except for sediment deposited at the site; black ones relate to items transported by animals to the site. For abbreviations of the formal bryophyte (blue arrows) names see Fig 5.
Fig 7.
Using data from Tyrol and Austria as a whole, maximal altitudinal distributions at present of the subfossil bryophytes recovered from the Ötzi site at 3,200m above sea level. 68% of the species grow in the nival zone while 32% have not been recorded in that zone.
Fig 8.
Map showing the present distribution of the four mosses Anomodon viticulosus, Hymenostylium recurvirostre, Neckera complanata and Sphagnum teres in the region of the Iceman site.