New key-tools for pollen identification in research and education

Pollen ID offers a free and easy access to various palynological information and compiles in the same web-space a pollen database and different services through a friendly user interface. Pollen ID proposes, or will propose, pollen and plant descriptions, terminology learning with an illustrated glossary and interactive images, identification keys, pollen analysis, pollen diagram construction, links with vegetation and climate data. The Pollen ID project is presently restricted to the European and Mediterranean geographical area, but it will be extended to other regions as well. This project is still in progress; its content and user interface – presently in French - will be soon available in English. In its final shape, the Pollen ID project will include palynological applications such as pollen determination tests, several original pollen analysis exercises with representations in diagrams and an easy interpretation of vegetation and climate. Pollen ID is accessible on http://lisupmc. snv.jussieu.fr/pollen/

High-resolution pollen record from core KW31, Gulf of Guinea, documents the history of the lowland forests of West Equatorial Africa since 40,000 yr ago

International audiencePollen data from core KW31 recovered off the mouth of the Niger River (3°31′1N-05°34ʺ1E; 1181 m water depth) provide an exceptional record of vegetation changes in the West African lowlands between 40,000 and 3500 cal yr B.P. The highly diverse microflora testify for the permanency of rain and secondary forests in the Niger river catchment, at least as gallery formations along rivers, during the last glacial period when dry conditions occurred in relation to enhanced trade-wind circulation. The direct consequence of the post-glacial warming and the correlative increase in monsoon fluxes over West Africa was the increase in forest diversity and the expansion of rain and secondary forests on the nearby continent. Comparison between KW31 pollen record and continental pollen data from 5°S to 25°N allows the evaluation of migration rates of tropical forest populations throughout North West Africa at the beginning of the Holocene and the vegetation response to the shift toward aridity recorded widely at the end of the African Humid Period around 4000 cal yr B.P

West African monsoon variability during the last deglaciation and the Holocene: Evidence from fresh water algae, pollen and isotope data from core KW31, Gulf of Guinea

International audienc

The Last Glacial Maximum and Heinrich Event 1 in terms of climate and vegetation around the Alboran Sea: a preliminary model-data comparison

International audienceThe Heinrich Event 1, the most recent of the glacial North Atlantic large iceberg discharges, is well documented in continental and marine records, but this large perturbation of the climate system has rarely been simulated. Here we propose a preliminary model-data comparison for this period, which we compare to the Last Glacial Maximum state. The pollen record from one specific core from the western Mediterranean Sea (ODP site 976) is analysed both in terms of vegetation distribution and climatic implication. The climate and vegetation of both periods are then simulated and compared to the pollen-based data

Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation history of the Bale mountains, Ethiopia

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Biome reconstruction from pollen and plant macrofossil data for Africa and the Arabian peninsula at 0 and 6000 years

Biome reconstruction from pollen and plant macrofossil data provides an objective method to reconstruct past vegetation. Biomes for Africa and the Arabian peninsula have been mapped for 6000 years sp and provide a new standard for the evaluation of simulated palaeovegetation distributions. A test using modern pollen data shows the robustness of the biomization method, which is able to predict the major vegetation types with a high confidence level. The application of the procedure to the 6000 years data set (pollen and plant macrofossil analyses) shows systematic differences from the present that are consistent with the numerous previous regional and continental interpretations, while providing a more extensive and more objective basis for such interpretations. Madagascar, eastern, southern and central Africa show only minor changes in terms of biomes, compared to present. Major changes in biome distributions occur north of 15 degrees N, with steppe in many low-elevation sites that are now desert, and temperate xerophytic woods/scrub and warm mixed forest in the Saharan mountains. These shifts in biome distributions, imply significant changes in climate, especially precipitation, between 6000 years and present, reflecting a change in monsoon extent combined with a southward expansion of Mediterranean influence. [References: 170

African pollen database inventory of tree and shrub pollen types

African pollen data have been used in many empirical or quantitative palaeoenvironmental reconstructions. However, the pollen types used in these studies were not controlled and standardised, preventing the precise understanding of pollen-plant and pollen-climate relation that is necessary for the accurate quantification of continental scale climate change or ecological processes in the past. This paper presents a summary of the progress made with the African Pollen Database (APD) inventory of plant diversity from pollen data extracted from 276 fossil sites and more than 1500 modem samples, with a focus on tropical tree pollen types. This inventory (1145 taxa) gives, for each pollen taxon whose nomenclature is discussed, information on the habit, habitat and phytogeographical distribution of the plants they come from. Special attention has been paid to pollen types with similar morphology, which include several plant species or genera, whose biological or environmental parameters can differ considerably