Pollen productivity estimates of key European plant taxa for quantitative reconstruction of past vegetation: a review

Abstract

Information on the spatial distribution of past vegetation on local, regional and global scales is increasingly used within climate modelling, nature conservancy and archaeology. It is possible to obtain such information from fossil pollen records in lakes and bogs using the landscape reconstruction algorithm (LRA) and its two models, REVEALS and LOVE. These models assume that reliable pollen productivity estimates (PPEs) are available for the plant taxa involved in the quantitative reconstructions of past vegetation, and that PPEs are constant through time. This paper presents and discusses the PPEs for 15 tree and 18 herb taxa obtained in nine study areas of Europe. Observed differences in PPEs between regions may be explained by methodological issues and environmental variables, of which climate and related factors such as reproduction strategies and growth forms appear to be the most important. An evaluation of the PPEs at hand so far suggests that they can be used in modelling applications and quantitative reconstructions of past

Palynological perspectives on vegetation survey: a critical step for model-based reconstruction of Quaternary land cover

“…Calcote, 1995;, and of 400 m þ for mosaic landscapes (e.g. Broström et al, 2005), offer some support for the choice of nesting distances (see Broström et al, 2008), which for moss polster pollen assemblage studies typically move from detailed recording to community mapping at about 10 m and from field mapping to Fig. 3.…”

“…Most recent studies use vegetation survey data from multiple distances (e.g. Broström et al, 2008) where ERV analysis is applied using cumulated distance-weighted plant abundance at increasing distances from the pollen sample points. Estimates of the model parameters, RPP and the background pollen term, are taken from the values at, or an average of values at distances greater than, the Relevant Source Area of Pollen (RSAP).…”

“…However, this is not simple to measure, and pollen productivity is usually estimated and expressed as a dimensionless ratio relative to a reference taxon (e.g. Davis, 1963;Andersen, 1970;Broström et al, 2008), termed the Relative Pollen Productivity (hereafter RPP). The reference taxon provides a benchmark for comparison between taxa and between datasets.…”

“…Sugita, 2007aSugita, , 2007bBunting and Middleton, 2009) assume that the pollen productivity of a given taxon relative to other taxa is effectively constant in space and time (that is, that the pollen production of all the taxa of interest responds to changes in climate or landscape structure in the same way). Considerable research effort has been invested in measuring Relative Pollen Productivity and multiple studies in northern Europe since 2001 have indicated wide variations in estimated values for common taxa (reviewed in Broström et al, 2008;Mazier et al 2012a). Bunting and Hjelle (2010) showed that one important element in the range of RPP estimates from different studies is variation in the methods of vegetation data collection.…”

The European Pollen Database: past efforts and current activities

“…In addition to using pollen records to investigate vegetation dynamics at individual sites through time, palaeoecologists have used the large amount of information stored in the database to address a range of scientific questions at regional or continental scales, such as (1) the reconstruction of patterns of past climate change through time and space (Davis et al 2003), which in turn is important in studies of general circulation models in the past (Bonfils et al 2004); (2) studies of the spread of plants, especially trees, since the last glaciation (Brewer et al 2002;Terhürne-Berson et al 2004;Giesecke and Bennett 2004;Conedera et al 2004;Krebs et al 2004; Van der Knaap et al 2005;Magri 2008); (3) reconstructions of past plant distribution patterns which allow testing of our understanding of factors limiting these and models that attempt to capture them (Giesecke et al 2007;Liepelt et al 2008) and increased precision in past land-cover reconstructions Broström et al 2008;Caseldine et al 2008). In addition, knowledge of pollen-inferred past landcover changes allows evaluation of the consequences and legacies of past land-use and provides information on the dynamic responses of vegetation to a constantly changing environment.…”