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The role of landscape structure in determining palynological and floristic richness

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Abstract

The associations between floristic and palynological richness and landscape structure were studied based on modern pollen–vegetation data from a patchy cultural landscape in southern Estonia (northern temperate vegetation zone). Nine study sites (small lakes and their surrounding vegetation) represent land cover gradient from closed forest to semi-open vegetation. Floristic richness (number of species) and floristic richness of pollen types (number of pollen-equivalent taxa) were used to describe the vegetation within the radius of 250 m from the pollen sampling sites. Palynological richness was calculated to describe the modern pollen samples diversity. Landscape structure was estimated on the basis of landscape openness and three landscape diversity measures: richness of community patches, Simpson evenness of community patches and Simpson diversity of community patches. To study the effect of the spatial scale of landscapes on the vegetation–landscape and pollen–landscape associations, landscape structure was estimated within eight radii (250–2,000 m) around each lake. The results showed that landscape openness was the most important determinant of both floristic richness and palynological richness in southern Estonia and that landscape diversity estimated by Simpson diversity index was also significantly associated with the richness estimates. Floristic and palynological richness were significantly positively correlated with landscape structure within the radii greater than 1,000 m from the pollen sampling sites, which is similar to the estimated Relevant Source Area of Pollen in southern Estonia. We conclude that within one floristic or climatic region, palynological richness gives reliable estimates about the variation in floristic richness and landscape structure; however, caution must be taken when comparing pollen-inferred vegetation diversities from different regions or when interpreting fossil pollen records from times with highly different vegetation associations.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Karin Kaljund, Silja Kana, Kaili Kattai, Kaire Lanno and Merit Otsus (Estonian University of Life Sciences) for helping with the vegetation survey; Jüri Vassiljev (Tallinn University of Technology) for helping with the pollen sampling; Bent Vad Odgaard for instructive and inspiring discussions; Robert Szava-Kovats for correcting the English of the manuscript; two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions; the Estonian Science Foundation (Grant ETF6995, SF0170052s08) for sponsorship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Estonian University of Life Sciences, Riia 181, 51014, Tartu, Estonia

    Vivika Meltsov, Marek Sammul & Tiiu Kull

  2. Institute of Geology at Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086, Tallinn, Estonia

    Anneli Poska & Triin Reitalu

  3. Department of Earth and Ecosystems Sciences, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 22362, Lund, Sweden

    Anneli Poska

  4. Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences at University of Tartu, Ravila 14a, 50411, Tartu, Estonia

    Anneli Poska

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  1. Vivika Meltsov
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Correspondence to Vivika Meltsov.

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Communicated by M.-J. Gaillard.

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Meltsov, V., Poska, A., Reitalu, T. et al. The role of landscape structure in determining palynological and floristic richness. Veget Hist Archaeobot 22, 39–49 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-012-0358-y

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