Modern pollen data from North America and Greenland for multi-scale paleoenvironmental applications

• Published in: Quaternary science reviews 2005-09, Vol.24 (16), p.1828-1848
• Main Authors: Whitmore, J., Gajewski, K., Sawada, M., Williams, J.W., Shuman, B., Bartlein, P.J., Minckley, T., Viau, A.E., Webb, T., Shafer, S., Anderson, P., Brubaker, L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0277-3791; 1873-457X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2005.03.005

The modern pollen network in North America and Greenland is presented as a database for use in quantitative calibration studies and paleoenvironmental reconstructions. The georeferenced database includes 4634 samples from all regions of the continent and 134 pollen taxa that range from ubiquitous to regionally diagnostic taxa. Climate data and vegetation characteristics were assigned to every site. Automated and manual procedures were used to verify the accuracy of geographic coordinates and identify duplicate records among datasets, incomplete pollen sums, and other potential errors. Data are currently available for almost all of North America, with variable density. Pollen taxonomic diversity, as measured by the Shannon–Weiner coefficient, varies as a function of location, as some vegetation regions are dominated by one or two major pollen producers, while other regions have a more even composition of pollen taxa. Squared-chord distances computed between samples show that most modern pollen samples find analogues within their own vegetation zone. Both temperature and precipitation inferred from best analogues are highly correlated with observed values but temperature exhibits the strongest relation. Maps of the contemporary distribution of several pollen types in relation to the range of the plant taxon illustrate the correspondence between plant and pollen ranges.