THE ECOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF FINE RESOLUTION POLLEN RECORDS

Abstract

Preserved pollen records with small intersample time intervals contain information about many processes in plant population and community ecology. A general approach to the ecological interpretation of these records includes the use of time series statistics, indices that reflect population or community dynamics and models of relevant ecological and sedimentological processes. While the problems inherent in traditional pollen analysis remain, the larger data sets generated by close‐interval sampling make it possible to filter out more sampling ‘noise’ and to obtain a stronger ecological ‘signal’. Copyright © 1983, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved