Deza-Araujo, Mara; Morales-Molino, César; Conedera, Marco; Pezzatti, Gianni B.; Pasta, Salvatore; Tinner, Willy (2021). Influence of taxonomic resolution on the value of anthropogenic pollen indicators. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 31(1), pp. 67-84. Springer 10.1007/s00334-021-00838-x
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The taxonomic resolution of palynological identification is determined by morphological criteria that are used to define pollen types. Different levels of taxonomic resolution are reached in palynology, depending on several factors such as the analyst's expertise, the palynological school, the aim of the study, the preservation of the pollen grains, the reference collections and the microscope facilities. Previous research has suggested that attaining pollen records with high taxonomic resolution is important to reconstruct correctly past land use and human impact. This is in turn central to disentangling past human activities from other drivers of long-term vegetation dynamics such as natural disturbance or climate variability. In this study, we assess the impact of taxonomic resolution on the indicative capacity of anthropogenic pollen types. To achieve this, we attribute the pollen types of sixteen sedimentary records, located along a latitudinal gradient spanning from Switzerland to Italy, to three levels of taxonomic resolution previously proposed at the European scale. Our results show that higher taxonomic resolution improves the identification of human impact by enhancing the indicative power of important pollen indicators widely used in the research field. Our results may contribute to the improvement of palynological reconstructions of land use and human impact by identifying key pollen types whose determination requires particular attention.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
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Division/Institute: |
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) > Palaeoecology 08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Plant Sciences (IPS) |
UniBE Contributor: |
Deza Araujo, Mara Muriel, Morales del Molino, Cesar, Tinner, Willy |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 580 Plants (Botany) |
ISSN: |
0939-6314 |
Publisher: |
Springer |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Peter Alfred von Ballmoos-Haas |
Date Deposited: |
15 Jul 2021 12:11 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 15:51 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1007/s00334-021-00838-x |
Uncontrolled Keywords: |
Anthropogenic indicators · Land use · Human impact · Taxonomic resolution · Palaeoecology · Europe |
BORIS DOI: |
10.48350/157034 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/157034 |
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