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Anne Birgitte Nielsen

Anne Nielsen

Project coordinator

Anne Birgitte Nielsen

Relative pollen productivity estimates in the forest steppe landscape of southeastern Romania

Author

  • Roxana Grindean
  • Anne Birgitte Nielsen
  • Ioan Tanţău
  • Angelica Feurdean

Summary, in English

Estimates of relative pollen productivity (RPP) represent key input parameters for model-based quantitative reconstructions of past vegetation cover. In this study, we provide the first RPP estimates for 13 taxa from the forest steppe ecoregion in southeastern Romania (southeastern Europe). We used modern pollen assemblages from 26 points together with vegetation surveys and mapping, covering a 1.5 km radius around each sampling site. We have estimated the relevant source area of pollen (RSAP) and pollen productivity for 13 taxa relative to Poaceae using the ERV (Extended R-value model), sub-model 3, as this model shows the best goodness of fit. The estimated RSAP is about 100 m and falls within the range of RSAP estimates of moss pollsters and forest hollows from other RPP-related studies. Results show that Rubiaceae (7.97), Apiaceae (5.91), Artemisia (5.89) and Fraxinus (2.99) are high pollen producers compared to Poaceae, while Plantago lanceolata (0.58), Fabaceae (0.40), Acer (0.30), Rosaceae (0.29), Carpinus orientalis (0.24), Cerealia (0.22) and Asteraceae (0.16) are low pollen producers with lower RPPs than Poaceae. Quercus (1.10) has a pollen productivity close to that of Poaceae. The RPPs for Carpinus orientalis and Fabaceae are published here the first time for Europe. The high pollen producing plants include both entomophilous and anemophilous species, while the low pollen producers are mostly entomophilous species. Our results form an essential contribution to improving the accuracy of quantitative reconstruction of forest steppe ecoregion in Europe and generally in regions with a similar climate and vegetation setting.

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences
  • BECC: Biodiversity and Ecosystem services in a Changing Climate
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system

Publishing year

2019

Language

English

Pages

54-63

Publication/Series

Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

Volume

264

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Elsevier

Topic

  • Botany

Keywords

  • Extended R-value model
  • Forest steppe
  • Relative pollen productivity estimates
  • Relevant source area of pollen
  • Southeastern Romania

Status

Published

Project

  • PAGES’ LandCover6k Working Group

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0034-6667