Researching the birchwood

A small team for the University of Iceland, Scott J. Riddell and Wesley Randall Farnsworth headed out to Þingvellir national park to gather lake core from a small pond near Bakkaréttir. With the team was national park ranger Gunnar Grímsson.
The project calle Birchwood of Iceland is a Rannís funded work.

Sediments from the core will be analysed for pollen to determine something of the past vegetation of this area and volcanic ash layers will be used to ascertain the time periods in which the identified ecological regimes prevailed.

Based upon saga narratives (as far as they can be trusted as historical sources), the pond in question is not so far from where the settler Grímur litli (Grímur the small) is thought to have established a farm Grímastaðir (Grímstaðir) within the Bláskógar. The saga character appears in Harðar saga and Hólmverjar.

Will the pollen from the pond sediments be able to corroborate that this was a wooded area in the early days of settlement (Landnám), an area that today is largely devoid of trees? Was Þingvallaskógur once part of a much more extensive woodland?