Surface pollen and its relationship with modern vegetation in tropical deciduous forests of southwestern Madhya Pradesh, India: a review

Abstract

The present communication reviews the pattern of modern pollen-rain studies carried out in southwestern Madhya Pradesh, India. The study largely revealed that Tectona grandis (teak), despite being an enormous pollen producer (7500 average number of absolute pollen/flower) and the dominant forest constituent (80 to 95% of the total forest constituents), is recorded mostly in low frequencies, attributable to its low pollen dispersal efficiency as well as poor pollen preservation in the sediments. However, Madhuca indica (Mahua) and other dominant members of Sapotaceae (cf. Manilkara hexandra and Mimusops elangi) have always shown their typical behaviour in the pollen spectra and are represented in high frequencies, which are assigned to their local abundance around the provenance of the samples, coupled with high dispersal efficiency as well as good pollen preservation in the sediments. Meanwhile, the other usual and characteristic associates of teak (Tectona grandis) in the tropical deciduous forests, despite being the common elements of the forests, are under-represented, sporadically represented or not represented at all, which could be ascribed to their low pollen productivity owing to entomogamy. Various factors that affect the deposition pattern of the diverse constituents of the tropical deciduous forests dominated by teak (Tectona grandis) have been discussed and suggestions are also given while interpreting the pollen sequences generated from the sedimentary beds in terms of past vegetation and climate in a chronological order in the region during the Late Quaternary Period.

Modern pollen and its ecological relationships with the tropical deciduous forests of central Uttar Pradesh, India

“…In India, Bera (1990), Quamar & Chauhan (2013b) and Quamar & Bera (2014) have already reported the different representation of pollen taxa caused by variable characteristics including pollen production and the dispersal ability among taxa. A relatively good correspondence between vegetation types and surface pollen assemblages in Assam has been observed in a transect from centre, margin and open-land areas of tropical deciduous forests (Dixit & Bera 2011.…”

Modern pollen assemblages from Hamtah and Chhatru glaciers, Lahaul-Spiti, India: Implications for pollen–vegetation relationship in an alpine arid region of western Himalaya

“…However, pollen rain data from the high altitude glaciated regions are somewhat lacking. From India, good data on modern pollen vegetation relationship are available from the tropical forests of south India (Anupama et al, 2000;Barboni and Bonnefille, 2001); tropical deciduous scrub vegetation in Rajasthan desert (Singh et al, 1973); northeast India (Basumatary et al, 2013(Basumatary et al, , 2014; deciduous forests of central India (Quamar and Bera, 2014) and Andaman islands (Singh et al, 2010). However, a review of the literature shows that records from the Himalayan region are comparatively sparse (Sharma, 1973(Sharma, , 1985Bhattacharayya, 1989;Gupta and Yadav, 1992;Chauhan and Sharma, 1993).…”

Vegetation and pollen along a 200-km transect in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, northwestern Pakistan

“…In Quaternary palynology, this type of study is also known as modern pollen rain studies, or modern pollen deposition patterns, or Response Transfer Function (Quamar & Beraa 2014). These studies serve as modern analogues for the accurate explanation of pollen sequences generated from the sedimentary beds in a region, and in terms of the past vegetation and climate in chronological order during the Quaternary Period, especially the Holocene and/or late Pleistocene epochs (Chauhan & Quamar 2012;Quamar & Beraa 2014). Modern pollen deposition studies have shown that pollen assemblages reflect general patterns in the vegetation (Weng et al 2004;Fontana 2005;Niemann et al 2010;Urrego et al 2011).…”

“…Modern pollen analogues are essential tools for palaeoecological reconstructions (Weng et al 2004;Huntley et al 2011;Sch€ uler et al 2014). In Quaternary palynology, this type of study is also known as modern pollen rain studies, or modern pollen deposition patterns, or Response Transfer Function (Quamar & Beraa 2014). These studies serve as modern analogues for the accurate explanation of pollen sequences generated from the sedimentary beds in a region, and in terms of the past vegetation and climate in chronological order during the Quaternary Period, especially the Holocene and/or late Pleistocene epochs (Chauhan & Quamar 2012;Quamar & Beraa 2014).…”