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The REVEALS model, a new tool to estimate past regional plant abundance from pollen data in large lakes: validation in southern Sweden

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Author

  • Sofie Hellman
  • Marie-Jose Gaillard
  • Anna Broström
  • Shinya Sugita

Summary, in English

The REVEALS model was developed to reconstruct quantitatively regional vegetation abundance (in a 10(4)-10(5) km(2) area) from pollen assemblages in large lakes (>= 100-500 ha). This model corrects for biases in pollen percentages caused by inter-taxonomic differences in pollen productivity and dispersal. This paper presents the first case study to validate REVEALS, using empirical data from southern Sweden. Percentage cover of modern regional vegetation in Skane and Smaland, two contrasting vegetation regions, was predicted with REVEALS for 26 key taxa, using pollen assemblages from surface sediments in 10 large lakes, and compared to the actual vegetation within 10(4) km(2) compiled from satellite data, forestry inventories, crop statistics, aerial photographs, and vegetation inventories. REVEALS works well in predicting the percentage cover of large vegetation units such as total trees (wooded land), total herbs (open land), total conifers and total broad-leaved trees, and it provides reasonable estimates for individual taxa, including Pinus, Picea, Betula, Corylus, Alnus, Tilia, Sahx spp., Juniperus, Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Cerealia and Secale. The results show great potential for REVEALS applications, including (1) quantitative reconstructions of past regional land cover important for palaeoclimatology and nature conservation, and (2) local-scale reconstruction of vegetation (<1 km(2) up to similar to 5 km(2) area) relevant for palaeoecology and archaeology.

Publishing year

2008

Language

English

Pages

21-42

Publication/Series

Journal of Quaternary Science

Volume

23

Issue

1

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Geology

Keywords

  • pollen-inferred regional estimates of vegetation abundance
  • pollen dispersal and deposition model
  • south Sweden
  • Holocene

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1099-1417