Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Estimating the spatial scale of pollen dispersal in the cultural landscape of southern Sweden

Broström, Anna LU ; Sugita, S ; Gaillard, M J and Pilesjö, Petter LU (2005) In The Holocene 15(2). p.252-262
Abstract
The primary aim of the study was to estimate the spatial scale of pollen dispersal and deposition for pollen assemblages from moss polsters in the cultivated landscape of southern Sweden, as a mean to improve future studies of the pollen/vegetation relationship in the region, and interpretation of fossil pollen data in terms of past cultural landscapes. This can be done by estimating the 'relevant source area of pollen' (RSAP) defined as the area around the pollen sampling point beyond which the pollen-vegetation relationship does not improve. Forty-two sites from nonfertilized grasslands in the traditional open agricultural (Open Region) and semi-open forested (Semi-Open Region) regions of southern Sweden were selected. The vegetation... (More)
The primary aim of the study was to estimate the spatial scale of pollen dispersal and deposition for pollen assemblages from moss polsters in the cultivated landscape of southern Sweden, as a mean to improve future studies of the pollen/vegetation relationship in the region, and interpretation of fossil pollen data in terms of past cultural landscapes. This can be done by estimating the 'relevant source area of pollen' (RSAP) defined as the area around the pollen sampling point beyond which the pollen-vegetation relationship does not improve. Forty-two sites from nonfertilized grasslands in the traditional open agricultural (Open Region) and semi-open forested (Semi-Open Region) regions of southern Sweden were selected. The vegetation survey was performed within a 1500 m radius area around the moss polsters sampling area. The extended R-value (ERV) model was used to evaluate the pollen-plant abundance relationship. The RSAP for moss polsters in the Open Region was estimated to c. 400 m from empirical data. In the Semi-Open Region, however, the likelihood function score, an indicator of the goodness-of-fit of the data to the ERV model, showed an unexpected pattern of change, making it difficult to evaluate the RSAP. Simulations using hypothetical landscapes suggest that systematic selection of sampling sites could cause this pattern. Simulations also demonstrate that the size of vegetation patches affect the RSAP, i.e., the larger the vegetation patches are, the larger the RSAP becomes. Similar RSAP for the Open and Semi-Open Regions is obtained in simulations using the same patch size, and random selection. In the actual vegetation, patch size is comparable in the two regions, which would suggest that the RSAP for moss polsters in the Semi-Open Region is c. 400 m as well. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
relevant source area of pollen, cultural landscape, southern Sweden, vegetation structure, ERV models, moss polsters
in
The Holocene
volume
15
issue
2
pages
252 - 262
publisher
SAGE Publications
external identifiers
  • wos:000227733400008
  • scopus:15944424662
ISSN
0959-6836
DOI
10.1191/0959683605hl790rp
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
625416fb-d91d-40d1-abc1-1dd44369a55e (old id 248991)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 12:27:09
date last changed
2022-03-05 23:44:02
@article{625416fb-d91d-40d1-abc1-1dd44369a55e,
  abstract     = {{The primary aim of the study was to estimate the spatial scale of pollen dispersal and deposition for pollen assemblages from moss polsters in the cultivated landscape of southern Sweden, as a mean to improve future studies of the pollen/vegetation relationship in the region, and interpretation of fossil pollen data in terms of past cultural landscapes. This can be done by estimating the 'relevant source area of pollen' (RSAP) defined as the area around the pollen sampling point beyond which the pollen-vegetation relationship does not improve. Forty-two sites from nonfertilized grasslands in the traditional open agricultural (Open Region) and semi-open forested (Semi-Open Region) regions of southern Sweden were selected. The vegetation survey was performed within a 1500 m radius area around the moss polsters sampling area. The extended R-value (ERV) model was used to evaluate the pollen-plant abundance relationship. The RSAP for moss polsters in the Open Region was estimated to c. 400 m from empirical data. In the Semi-Open Region, however, the likelihood function score, an indicator of the goodness-of-fit of the data to the ERV model, showed an unexpected pattern of change, making it difficult to evaluate the RSAP. Simulations using hypothetical landscapes suggest that systematic selection of sampling sites could cause this pattern. Simulations also demonstrate that the size of vegetation patches affect the RSAP, i.e., the larger the vegetation patches are, the larger the RSAP becomes. Similar RSAP for the Open and Semi-Open Regions is obtained in simulations using the same patch size, and random selection. In the actual vegetation, patch size is comparable in the two regions, which would suggest that the RSAP for moss polsters in the Semi-Open Region is c. 400 m as well.}},
  author       = {{Broström, Anna and Sugita, S and Gaillard, M J and Pilesjö, Petter}},
  issn         = {{0959-6836}},
  keywords     = {{relevant source area of pollen; cultural landscape; southern Sweden; vegetation structure; ERV models; moss polsters}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{2}},
  pages        = {{252--262}},
  publisher    = {{SAGE Publications}},
  series       = {{The Holocene}},
  title        = {{Estimating the spatial scale of pollen dispersal in the cultural landscape of southern Sweden}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0959683605hl790rp}},
  doi          = {{10.1191/0959683605hl790rp}},
  volume       = {{15}},
  year         = {{2005}},
}