Anneli Poska
Postdoctoral fellow
Surface Samples and Trapping
Author
Editor
- Scott A. EliasCary J. Mock
Summary, in English
Abstract: Reference pollen data for use in interpreting fossil pollen assemblages may be either collected as surface samples or monitored by means of pollen traps. Surface samples can be obtained from moss polsters or lake-surface sediment, or exceptionally soil, leaf litter, or snow. The advantage of such samples is that a large number can be collected relatively quickly. Within the resulting pollen assemblage, however, the presence of each taxon has to be expressed in percentage terms. Reference material obtained from pollen traps offers more possibilities because pollen accumulation rates (PARs, grains cmâ 2 yearâ 1) can be calculated, and the record of each taxon can be considered independently. This allows comparisons over distance and between vegetation regions. The collection of such data using traps requires several years because the annual variation in pollen production, which is partly determined by climate, is great, and it is only the long-term average PAR that reflects vegetation composition. The number and location of samples and the amount of accompanying vegetation data should be appropriate for the research question to which they will be applied because there is no single standard that is suitable for the whole range of possible uses.
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
839-845
Publication/Series
Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science (Second Edition)
Links
Document type
Book chapter
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Physical Geography
Keywords
- Analog approach
- Annual variation
- Databases
- Modern reference material
- Moss polsters
- Pollen accumulation rates
- Pollen data training sets
- Pollen dispersal models
- Pollen monitoring program
- Pollen percentages
- Pollen productivity
- Spatial resolution
- Surface sample
- Tauber-type trap
- Temporal resolution
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISBN: 978-0-444-53642-6