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A new tool for formalised vegetation reconstruction from (sub)fossil records – the FEVER Index

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Abstract

Plant macro-remains provide valuable environmental information of the past, but reconstruction of past vegetation is challenging, because a macrofossil sample may include material from various habitats and also because its species composition is biased and incomplete. Therefore, we aimed to propose, test and evaluate an objective tool for data reconstruction in archaeobotany and palaeoecology. Our Fossil assEmblage VEgetation Reconstruction Index (FEVER Index) indicates relative probabilities that particular taxa in a fossil assemblage come from respective vegetation types. In contrast to the Frequency Positive Fidelity Index (FPFI) used for modern vegetation classification, the FEVER Index emphasises the importance of diagnostic species. The comparison between the FEVER and FPFI indices, when they are applied to a large dataset of modern vegetation plots, has shown that the FEVER Index has greater classification accuracy. In the case where taxonomic data were reduced to genera only, the efficiency of the FEVER Index was even higher than FPFI. This shows that the FEVER Index is more accurate when applied to incomplete fossil data, but only when there are some diagnostic species still present. We also examined the similarity between modern vegetation and corresponding seed bank data. Wetland habitats, such as calcareous fens and periodically exposed riverbeds showed high similarity between the vegetation and the seed banks because of the local origin of the seed bank material. Lower similarity was, however, detected in the case of small pools in the upper reaches of the river Lužnice, the seed bank of which included not only aquatic vegetation but also plants from terrestrial habitats nearby, transported by flowing water. Finally, we provide two examples of applying the FEVER Index to fossil data.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Jitka Klimešová and Jana Martínková, who helped with the seed bank study in the Lužnice floodplain. We also thank two anonymous reviewers for improving the manuscript.

Funding

The research was supported by Grantová Agentura České Republiky (Czech Science Foundation), project No. GA23-05132 S. PH, AK, AŠ, JJ and KŠ were partially supported by the long-term developmental project of Akademie věd České Republiky (Czech Academy of Sciences) (RVO 67985939). AP was supported by long-term research development project RVO 67985912 (Czech Academy of Sciences).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Natural Sciences and Archaeometry, Institute of Archaeology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Letenská 4, Praha 1 – Malá Strana, Prague, CZ-118 00, Czech Republic

    Adéla Pokorná

  2. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, Benátská 2, Praha 2 – Nové Město, Prague, CZ-128 00, Czech Republic

    Adéla Pokorná & Anna Šolcová

  3. Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, Brno, CZ-611 37, Czech Republic

    Petra Hájková & Lubomír Tichý

  4. Department of Paleoecology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Lidická 25/27, Brno, CZ-602 00, Czech Republic

    Petra Hájková, Jana Jiroušková & Anna Šolcová

  5. Laboratory of Archaeobotany and Palaeoecology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Na Zlaté stoce 3, České Budějovice, CZ-370 05, Czech Republic

    Alex Bernardová & Barbora Jonášová

  6. Department of Experimental and Functional Morphology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Dukelská 135, Třeboň, CZ-379 01, Czech Republic

    Andrea Kučerová

  7. Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Lidická 25/27, Brno, CZ-602 00, Czech Republic

    Kateřina Šumberová

  8. Prague City Museum, Kožná 475, Praha 1 – Staré Město, Prague, CZ-110 00, Czech Republic

    Petr Starec

Authors
  1. Adéla Pokorná
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  2. Petra Hájková
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  3. Alex Bernardová
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  10. Lubomír Tichý
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Contributions

LT created the FEVER index, made all calculations and created all diagrams. AP, PH and LT contributed in equal amounts to the writing of the text and should be regarded as the main authors. AB, BJ, AK, JJ and KŠ provided seed bank studies. PS and AŠ did field sampling for fossil data analyses (PS for Rybnik fish pond archaeological site and AŠ for Šúr former lake). AP, PH and LT wrote the manuscript with contributions from all authors.

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Correspondence to Adéla Pokorná.

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Pokorná, A., Hájková, P., Bernardová, A. et al. A new tool for formalised vegetation reconstruction from (sub)fossil records – the FEVER Index. Veget Hist Archaeobot (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-024-00996-8

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