This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Seppa, H. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation Social Bookmarking                   What's this?

Postglacial trends in palynological richness in the northern Fennoscandian tree-line area and their ecological interpretation

Department of Geography, Laboratory of Physical Geography, PO Box 9, FIN-00014, University of Helsinki, Finland

The northern Fennoscandian tree-line area consists of fairly distinct vegetation zones. The pollen stratigraphies of two boreal sites and two tundra sites were studied and the palynological data analysed numerically. The main aim was to measure palynological richness, using rarefaction analysis, and to assess its value in reflecting patterns of past floristic richness. Rates of palynological change were measured using both chord distance and Euclidean distance as the dissimilarity coefficient. The results show low palynological richness during the Younger Dryas. The values increase rapidly at the transition to the Holocene. During the Holocene the values are in reversed order in relation to present vegetation density, the tundra sites having the highest palynological richness. This suggests that differences in the size of the pollen catchment may have an important role in palynological richness estimates and that no straight comparisons of palynological richness should be made between sites from different vegetation zones. Most pronounced changes in palynological richness take place in the Lake Rautuselka core, where high Pinus pollen influx is correlated with low palynological richness. At the boreal sites, high rates of change are associated with higher palynological richness whereas no similar relationship is observed at the tundra sites.

Key Words: Vegetation dynamics • palynological richness • rarefaction analysis • boreal forest • tundra • vegetation • density • vegetation openness • tree-line • Holocene • Younger Dryas • Fennoscandia

The Holocene, Vol. 8, No. 1, 43-53 (1998)
DOI: 10.1191/095968398674096317


CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				D. Colombaroli, B. Vanniere, C. Emmanuel, M. Magny, and W. Tinner Fire--vegetation interactions during the Mesolithic--Neolithic transition at Lago dell'Accesa, Tuscany, Italy The Holocene, August 1, 2008; 18(5): 679 - 692. [Abstract] [PDF]