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Effects of the sampling design and selection of parameter values on pollen-based quantitative reconstructions of regional vegetation: a case study in southern Sweden using the REVEALS model

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Abstract

The need for quantification of land cover from pollen data has led to the development of a Landscape Reconstruction Algorithm (LRA). The LRA includes several models of which the REVEALS model estimates regional vegetation abundance using pollen assemblages from large sites (lakes or bogs). In this paper we explore the effects of selection and number of pollen samples, and choice of pollen productivity estimates on the REVEALS results. The effect of the size of vegetation surveys is also tested. The results suggest that the differences between two sizes of vegetation surveys have little effect on the model validation. The “characteristic radius” of regional vegetation in southern Sweden was estimated as 200 km. However, the vegetation composition in a 100 × 100 km2 square matches well with that estimated by REVEALS. Whether 25, 20 (outliers excluded) or 4 pollen samples are used does not change the REVEALS reconstructions much although the error estimates are larger when outliers are included, and very large when only four samples are used. Therefore validation of the REVEALS model and REVEALS reconstructions of past vegetation can be performed using a limited number of pollen samples, although with caution. The use of many pollen samples from multiple sites is always better whenever possible. REVEALS reconstructions are closer to the actual vegetation when the Danish Pollen Productivity Estimates (PPEs) are used instead of the Swedish PPEs for Cereals, Rumex acetosa/acetosella, Plantago lanceolata and Calluna, indicating that the Danish PPEs are more reliable than the Swedish ones for those taxa. It is recommended to test more than one set of PPEs in validation and applications of the REVEALS model for a better evaluation of the results.

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Acknowledgments

The financial support of VR (Vetenskapsrådet, Swedish Research Council) and NorFA (Nordic Academy of Advanced Studies) is gratefully acknowledged. This paper is a contribution to the POLLANDCAL (POLlen-LANDscape CALibration) network sponsored by NorFA and co-ordinated by M.-J. Gaillard (network website: http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/ecrc/pollandcal/). We are grateful to all POLLANDCAL members for useful and inspiring discussions during the numerous network workshops held between 2001 and 2005. We also thank Ralph Fyfe for carefully checking the English language and Florence Mazier for improvement of earlier versions of Figs. 1–3, 6 and 8. Finally, we are very grateful to Thomas Giesecke and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments on the manuscript and suggestions to improvements.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Pure and Applied Natural Sciences, Kalmar University, 391 82, Kalmar, Sweden

    Sofie E. V. Hellman & Marie-josé Gaillard

  2. Geobiosphere Science Centre, Lund University, Sölvegatan 12, 223 62, Lund, Sweden

    Anna Broström

  3. Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behaviour, University of Minnesota, 100 Ecology Building, 1987 Upper Buford Circle, St Paul, MN, 55108, USA

    Shinya Sugita

Authors
  1. Sofie E. V. Hellman
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  2. Marie-josé Gaillard
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  3. Anna Broström
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  4. Shinya Sugita
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Correspondence to Sofie E. V. Hellman.

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Communicated by J. Dearing.

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Hellman, S.E.V., Gaillard, Mj., Broström, A. et al. Effects of the sampling design and selection of parameter values on pollen-based quantitative reconstructions of regional vegetation: a case study in southern Sweden using the REVEALS model. Veget Hist Archaeobot 17, 445–459 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-008-0149-7

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