TY - JOUR A1 - Gosling, William D. A1 - Julier, Adele C. M. A1 - Adu-Bredu, Stephen A1 - Djagbletey, Gloria D. A1 - Fraser, Wesley T. A1 - Jardine, Phillip E. A1 - Lomax, Barry H. A1 - Malhi, Yadvinder A1 - Manu, Emmanuel A. A1 - Mayle, Francis E. A1 - Moore, Sam T1 - Pollen-vegetation richness and diversity relationships in the tropics JF - Vegetation History and Archaeobotany N2 - Tracking changes in biodiversity through time requires an understanding of the relationship between modern diversity and how this diversity is preserved in the fossil record. Fossil pollen is one way in which past vegetation diversity can be reconstructed. However, there is limited understanding of modern pollen-vegetation diversity relationships from biodiverse tropical ecosystems. Here, pollen (palynological) richness and diversity (Hill N (1)) are compared with vegetation richness and diversity from forest and savannah ecosystems in the New World and Old World tropics (Neotropics and Palaeotropics). Modern pollen data were obtained from artificial pollen traps deployed in 1-ha vegetation study plots from which vegetation inventories had been completed in Bolivia and Ghana. Pollen counts were obtained from 15 to 22 traps per plot, and aggregated pollen sums for each plot were > 2,500. The palynological richness/diversity values from the Neotropics were moist evergreen forest = 86/6.8, semi-deciduous dry forest = 111/21.9, wooded savannah = 138/31.5, and from the Palaeotropics wet evergreen forest = 144/28.3, semi-deciduous moist forest = 104/4.4, forest-savannah transition = 121/14.1; the corresponding vegetation richness/diversity was 100/36.7, 80/38.7 and 71/39.4 (Neotropics), and 101/54.8, 87/45.5 and 71/34.5 (Palaeotropics). No consistent relationship was found between palynological richness/diversity, and plot vegetation richness/diversity, due to the differential influence of other factors such as landscape diversity, pollination strategy, and pollen source area. Palynological richness exceeded vegetation richness, while pollen diversity was lower than vegetation diversity. The relatively high global diversity of tropical vegetation was found to be reflected in the pollen rain. KW - Neotropics KW - Palaeotropics KW - Palynology KW - Pollen trap KW - Forest-savannah KW - Savanna Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-017-0642-y SN - 0939-6314 SN - 1617-6278 VL - 27 IS - 2 SP - 411 EP - 418 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Julier, Adele C. M. A1 - Jardine, Phillip E. A1 - Adu-Bredu, Stephen A1 - Coe, Angela L. A1 - Duah-Gyamfi, Akwasi A1 - Fraser, Wesley T. A1 - Lomax, Barry H. A1 - Malhi, Yadvinder A1 - Moore, Sam A1 - Owusu-Afriyie, Kennedy A1 - Gosling, William D. T1 - The modern pollen-vegetation relationships of a tropical forest-savannah mosaic landscape, Ghana, West Africa JF - Palynology N2 - Transitions between forest and savannah vegetation types in fossil pollen records are often poorly understood due to over-production by taxa such as Poaceae and a lack of modern pollen-vegetation studies. Here, modern pollen assemblages from within a forest-savannah transition in West Africa are presented and compared, their characteristic taxa discussed, and implications for the fossil record considered. Fifteen artificial pollen traps were deployed for 1 year, to collect pollen rain from three vegetation plots within the forest-savannah transition in Ghana. High percentages of Poaceae and Melastomataceae/Combretaceae were recorded in all three plots. Erythrophleum suaveolens characterised the forest plot, Manilkara obovata the transition plot and Terminalia the savannah plot. The results indicate that Poaceae pollen influx rates provide the best representation of the forest-savannah gradient, and that a Poaceae abundance of >40% should be considered as indicative of savannah-type vegetation in the fossil record. KW - pollen KW - transitions KW - Poaceae KW - savannah KW - Ghana KW - palaeoecology KW - Bosumtwi Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/01916122.2017.1356392 SN - 0191-6122 SN - 1558-9188 VL - 42 IS - 3 SP - 324 EP - 338 PB - Taylor & Francis Group CY - Philadelphia ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gosling, William D. A1 - Julier, Adele C. M. A1 - Adu-Bredu, Stephen A1 - Djagbletey, Gloria D. A1 - Fraser, Wesley T. A1 - Jardine, Phillip E. A1 - Lomax, Barry H. A1 - Malhi, Yadvinder A1 - Manu, Emmanuel A. A1 - Mayle, Francis E. A1 - Moore, Sam T1 - Pollen-vegetation richness and diversity relationships in the tropics T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Tracking changes in biodiversity through time requires an understanding of the relationship between modern diversity and how this diversity is preserved in the fossil record. Fossil pollen is one way in which past vegetation diversity can be reconstructed. However, there is limited understanding of modern pollen-vegetation diversity relationships from biodiverse tropical ecosystems. Here, pollen (palynological) richness and diversity (Hill N (1)) are compared with vegetation richness and diversity from forest and savannah ecosystems in the New World and Old World tropics (Neotropics and Palaeotropics). Modern pollen data were obtained from artificial pollen traps deployed in 1-ha vegetation study plots from which vegetation inventories had been completed in Bolivia and Ghana. Pollen counts were obtained from 15 to 22 traps per plot, and aggregated pollen sums for each plot were > 2,500. The palynological richness/diversity values from the Neotropics were moist evergreen forest = 86/6.8, semi-deciduous dry forest = 111/21.9, wooded savannah = 138/31.5, and from the Palaeotropics wet evergreen forest = 144/28.3, semi-deciduous moist forest = 104/4.4, forest-savannah transition = 121/14.1; the corresponding vegetation richness/diversity was 100/36.7, 80/38.7 and 71/39.4 (Neotropics), and 101/54.8, 87/45.5 and 71/34.5 (Palaeotropics). No consistent relationship was found between palynological richness/diversity, and plot vegetation richness/diversity, due to the differential influence of other factors such as landscape diversity, pollination strategy, and pollen source area. Palynological richness exceeded vegetation richness, while pollen diversity was lower than vegetation diversity. The relatively high global diversity of tropical vegetation was found to be reflected in the pollen rain. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 562 KW - Neotropics KW - Palaeotropics KW - Palynology KW - Pollen trap KW - Forest-savannah KW - Savanna Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-423081 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 562 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Jardine, Phillip E. A1 - Lomax, Barry H. T1 - Is pollen size a robust proxy for moisture availability? JF - Review of palaeobotany and palynology : an international journal N2 - The development of well-constrained palaeo-proxies that enable the reconstruction of past climate change is becoming an ever more important field of scientific enquiry within the palaeobotanical community, with the potential to deliver broader impacts linked to understanding of future anthropogenic climate change. One of the major uncertainties in predicting climate change is how the hydrological cycle will respond to future warming. Griener and Warny (2015, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 221,138-143) suggested that pollen size might be a useful proxy for tracking moisture availability, as pollen size appears to be negatively correlated with moisture. Given the long fossil record of pollen and spores such a proxy would have broad scope and the potential to deliver much needed information. Here we set out to fully evaluate and test the robustness of this proxy. We focus on a number of key issues: controls on pollen size, data analysis, and finally proxy validation. Using this approach we find that there is little theoretical or empirical support for the original relationship proposed by Griener and Warny. Consequently it is currently premature to use pollen size as a moisture availability proxy in the fossil record. However, we recognise that the technique may have potential and conclude by offering a series of recommendations that would rigorously assess and test for a relationship between pollen size and moisture availability. (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. KW - Pollen size KW - Moisture availability KW - Nothofagus KW - Phylogeny KW - Palaeoclimate proxy Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2017.06.013 SN - 0034-6667 SN - 1879-0615 VL - 246 SP - 161 EP - 166 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER -