Skip to main content
Log in

Herb pollen representation in surface moss samples from mown meadows and pastures in western Norway

  • Published:
Vegetation History and Archaeobotany Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Grazed and mown vegetation types in western Norway were investigated with the aim of describing their modern pollen/vegetation relationships as an aid to the interpretation of fossil pollen diagrams. Pollen surface samples and vegetation data were obtained from 186 square metre plots within 39 different sites of 10×10 m. Scatter plots that show the relationship between pollen percentages and vegetation percentages are presented forTrifolium pratense-type,Trifolium rcpens-type,Lotus, Campanula-type,Succisa, Ranunculus acris-type,Cirsium-type, Asteraceae Cichorioideae,Achillea-type,Potentilla-type, Apiaceae,Rumex sect.Acetosa, Galium-type, Cyperaceae,Calluna, Plantago lanceolata and Poaceae. Pollen representation factors relative to Poaceae (Rrel) are calculated for 54 pollen taxa. Differences in the values from different geographical areas were found in the case of some taxa, due to either different genera or species being included in the pollen taxa and/or to the different representation of high pollen producers in the different regional vegetation types. Background pollen influences the estimates for taxa such asR. sect.Acetosa, P. lanceolata, Poaceae, Cyperaceae, andCalluna, and an extended R-value (ERV) model was used to investigate the magnitude of this pollen component. Groups of roughly similar pollen representation were identified and factors to convert pollen percentages to vegetation abundances are suggested.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aaby B (1983) Forest development, soil genesis and human activity illustrated by pollen and hypha analysis of two neighbouring podzols in Draved Forest, Denmark. Dan Geol Unders, Ser II, 114:1–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Adam DP, Mehringer PJJr (1975) Modern pollen surface samples — an analysis of subsamples. J Res US Geol Surv 3: 733–736

    Google Scholar 

  • Andersen ST (1967) Tree-pollen rain in a mixed deciduous forest in South Jutland (Denmark). Rev Palaeobot Palynol 3: 267–275

    Google Scholar 

  • Andersen ST (1970) The relative pollen productivity and pollen representation of north European trees, and correction factors for tree pollen spectra. Dan Geol Unders, Ser II, 96: 1–99

    Google Scholar 

  • Andersen ST (1984) Forests at Løvenhohn, Djursland, Denmark, at present and in the past. Biol Skr Dans Vidensk Selsk 24: 1–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Behre KE (1981) The interpretation of anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams. Pollen Spores 23: 225–245

    Google Scholar 

  • Berglund BE, Emanuelsson U, Persson S, Persson T (1986) Pollen/vegetation relationships in grazed and mowed plant communities of south Sweden. In: Behre KE (ed) Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 37–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Birks HJB, Gordon AD (1985) Numerical methods in Quaternary pollen analysis. Academic Press, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw RHW (1981a) Modern pollen-representation factors for woods in south-east England. J Ecol 69: 45–70

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw RHW (1981b) Quantitative reconstruction of local woodland vegetation using pollen analysis from a small basin in Norfolk, England. J Ecol 69: 941–955

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradshaw RHW, Webb T III (1985) Relationships between contemporary pollen and vegetation data from Wisconsin and Michigan, USA. Ecology 66: 721–737

    Google Scholar 

  • Calcote R (1995) Pollen source area and pollen productivity: evidence from forest hollows. J Ecol 83: 591–602

    Google Scholar 

  • Caramiello RC, Siniscalco C, Piervittori R (1991) The relationship between vegetation and pollen deposition in soil and in biological traps. Grana 30: 291- 300

    Google Scholar 

  • Caseldine CJ (1989) Pollen assemblage-plant community relationships on the Storbreen glacier foreland, Jotunheimen Mountains, southern Norway. New Phytol 111: 105–118

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis MB (1963) On the theory of pollen analysis. Am J Science 261: 897–912

    Google Scholar 

  • Davis OK (1984) Pollen frequencies reflect vegetation patterns in a Great Basin (U.S.A.) mountain range. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 40: 295–315

    Google Scholar 

  • Fagerlind F (1952) The real significance of pollen diagrams. Bot Not 105: 185–224

    Google Scholar 

  • Fredskild B (1970) Palynological part. In: Degerbol M, Fredskild B (eds) The Urns (Bos primigenius bojanus) and Neolithic domesticated cattle (Bos taurus domesticus Linnè) in Denmark. Dan Vid Selsk Biol Skr 17: 179–234

    Google Scholar 

  • Fægri K (1960) Maps of distribution of Norwegian plants. I. The coast plants. University Press, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • Fægri K, Iversen J (1989) Textbook of pollen analysis, 4th edn, by Fægri K, Kaland PE, Krzywinski K. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon AD, Prentice IC (1977) Numerical methods in Quaternary palaeoecology. IV. Separating mixtures of morphologically similar pollen taxa. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 23: 359–372

    Google Scholar 

  • Groenman-van Waateringe W (1993) The effects of grazing on the pollen production of grasses. Veget Hist Archaeobot 2: 157–162

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall VA (1989) A study of modem pollen rain from a reconstructed 19th century farm. Ir Nat J 23: 82–92

    Google Scholar 

  • Hansen JH, Jackson ST (1995) FAGERLND Program notes. Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff

    Google Scholar 

  • Heim J (1970) Les relations entre les spectres polliniques recents et la vegetation actuelle en Europe occidentale. Laboratorie de Palynologie et de Phytosociologie, Universite de Louvain.

  • Hicks S (1986) Modem pollen deposition records from Kuusamo, Finland. II. The establishment of pollen: vegetation analogues. Grana 25: 183–204

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill MO, Gauch HG Jr (1980) Detrended correspondence analysis: an improved ordination technique. Vegetatio 42: 47–58

    Google Scholar 

  • Hjelle KL (1997) Relationships between pollen and plants in human-influenced vegetation types using presence — absence data in western Norway. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 99: 1–16

    Google Scholar 

  • Iversen J (1947) Plantevækst, dyreliv og klima i det senglaciale Denmark. Geol Før Stockh Førh 69: 67–78

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson ST, Webb T III, Laseski RA, Bernabo J (1978) Sensing vegetational patterns with pollen data: choosing the data. Ecology 59: 1151–1163

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson ST, Webb T III, Prentice C, Hansen JE (1995) Exploration and calibration of pollen/vegetation relationships: a PC program for the extended R-value models. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 84:365–374

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson ST, Wong A (1994) Using forest patchiness to determine pollen source areas of closed-canopy pollen assemblages. J Ecol 82: 89–99

    Google Scholar 

  • Jonassen H (1950) Recent pollen sedimentation and Jutland heath diagrams. Dans Bot Ark 13: 1–168

    Google Scholar 

  • Kershaw AK, Looney JHH (1985) Quantitative and dynamic plant ecology, 3rd edn. Arnold, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Lichti-Federovitch S, Ritchie JC (1965) Contemporary pollen spectra in central Canada. II. The forest-grassland transition in Manitoba. Pollen Spores 7: 63–87

    Google Scholar 

  • Lid J, Lid DT (1994) Norsk flora, 6th edn, by Elven R. Det Norske Samlaget, Oslo

    Google Scholar 

  • Livingstone DA (1968) Some interstadial and postglacial pollen diagrams from eastern Canada. Ecol Monogr 38: 87–125

    Google Scholar 

  • Losvik MH (1991) A hay meadow in western Norway — changes in the course of a growing season. Nord J Bot 11: 577–586

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch EA (1996) The ability of pollen from small lakes and ponds to sense fine-scale vegetation patterns in the Central Rocky Mountains, USA. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 94: 197–210

    Google Scholar 

  • Markgraf V (1980) Pollen dispersal in a mountain area. Grana 19: 127–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore PD, Evans AT, Chater M (1986) Palynological and stratigraphic evidence for hydrological changes in mires associated with human activity. In: Behre KE (ed) Anthropogenic indicators in pollen diagrams. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 209–220

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore PD, Webb JA, Collinson ME (1991) Pollen analysis, 2nd edn. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Odgaard BV (1994a) The use of spheroidal carbonaceous particles for quantifying modem pollen deposition rates. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 82: 157–164

    Google Scholar 

  • Odgaard BV (1994b) The Holocene vegetation history of northern west Jutland, Denmark. Opera Bot 123: 1–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Pardoe HS (1996) Micro-scale patterns of modem pollen deposition within three alpine plant communities. New Phytol 132: 327–341

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons RW, Prentice IC (1981) Statistical approaches to R-values and the pollen-vegetation relationship. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 32: 127–152

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons RW, Prentice IC, Saarnisto M (1980) Statistical studies on pollen representation in Finnish lake sediments in relation to forest inventory data. Ann Bot Fenn 17: 379–393

    Google Scholar 

  • Pohl F (1937) Die Pollenerzeugung der Windblütler. Beiheft Bot Centralblatt 56A:

  • Prentice IC, Parsons RW (1983) Maximum likelihood linear calibration of pollen spectra in terms of forest composition. Biometrics 39: 1051–1057

    Google Scholar 

  • Prentice IC, Webb T III (1986) Pollen percentages, tree abundances and the Fagerlind effect. J Quat Sci 1: 35–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Punt W, Clarke GCS (1984) The northwest European pollen flora, IV. Elsevier, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Randall RE, Andrew R, West RG (1986) Pollen catchment in relation to local vegetation: Ceann Ear, Monach Isles N.N.R., Outer Hebrides. New Phytol 104: 271–310

    Google Scholar 

  • Ritchie JC (1974) Modem pollen assemblages near the arctic tree line, Mackenzie delta region, northwest territories. Can J Bot 52: 381–396

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz MW (1989) Predicting tree frequencies from pollen frequency: an attempt to validate the (Rrel) value method. New Phytol 112: 129–143

    Google Scholar 

  • Smilauer P (1992) CanoDraw. User's guide version 3.0. Environmental Change Research Centre, University College, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Sokal RS, Rohlf FJ (1981) Biometry. The principles and practice of statistics in biological research, 2nd edn. Freeman, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Sugita S (1993) A model of pollen source area for an entire lake surface. Quat Res 39: 239–244

    Google Scholar 

  • Sugita S (1994) Pollen representation of vegetation in Quaternary sediments: theory and method in patchy vegetation. J Ecol 82: 881–897

    Google Scholar 

  • ter Braak CJF (1991) Program CANOCO version 3.12. Agricultural Mathematics Group, Wageningen

    Google Scholar 

  • Tsukada M (1958) Untersuchungen über das Verhaltnis zwischen dem Pollengehalt der Oberflachenproben und der Vegetation des Hochlandes Shiga. J Inst Polytechn (Osaka City University) Ser. D, 9: 217–234

    Google Scholar 

  • van der Knaap WO (1990) Relations between present-day pollen deposition and vegetation in Spitsbergen. Grana 29: 63–78

    Google Scholar 

  • von Post L (1918) Skogsträdpollen i sydsvenska torvmosselagerfoljder [Forest tree pollen in south Swedish peat bog deposits). Forh. ved 16. Skand Naturforskermote 1916: 433–465

    Google Scholar 

  • Vuorela 1 (1973) Relative pollen rain around cultivated fields. Acta Bot Fenn102: 1–27

    Google Scholar 

  • Webb T III, Howe SE, Bradshaw RHW, Heide KM (1981) Estimating plant abundances from pollen percentages: the use of regression analysis. Rev Palaeobot Palynol 34: 269–300

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hjelle, K.L. Herb pollen representation in surface moss samples from mown meadows and pastures in western Norway. Veget Hist Archaebot 7, 79–96 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373926

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01373926

Key words

Navigation