The modern pollen–vegetation relationship in Jammu, India: a comparative appraisal

Abstract

An understanding of the relationship between modern pollen and vegetation is a prerequisite for reconstruction of vegetation and climate change from fossil pollen records. We conducted palynological studies of thirty-five surface soil samples from the Jammu region of India, which revealed that Pinus, among the conifers (regional needle-leaved taxa), is over-represented in the pollen assemblage due to its high production and effective dispersal of pollen. Other coniferous and broadleaved (regional and/or extra-regional) taxa have comparatively lower values in the pollen assemblages, similar to the representation of subtropical deciduous forest elements (regional), as well as shrubby (regional and/or extra-regional) taxa. This inconsistency in the pollen assemblage could be due to long-distance transport of the former by wind and/or water from the higher reaches of the Himalayas, and also because the latter have an entomogamous pollination syndrome and are not high pollen producers. The recovered pollen assemblage presents a distorted picture of the extant vegetation; hence, caution should be exercised in interpreting fossil pollen records from the study area. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows variability in the distribution of pollen from different sites in the Jammu region, perhaps the result of transport (by wind and/ or water), altitude and/or edaphic factors of the Himalayan terrain. The study should improve our understanding of the modern pollen-vegetation relationship and aid further calibration and interpretation of fossil pollen records.

Palynological response deduced through spatially distinct surface samples to reconstruct palaeoecology and palaeoclimate of the Barak Valley, Assam (Indo-Burma region), northeast India

“…Nonetheless, wetland samples more typically contain aquatic pollen taxa, which is consistent with the current flora observed near lakes (Figure 5). Quamar et al (2021) postulated that the pollen of the terrestrial herbaceous taxa like Poaceae, Cereal, Asteroideae/Tubuliflorae and Malvaceae, though showing high values, represented only part of the extant ground vegetation in Jammu region of India which is concurrent to the pollen results from the Barak region, thus, approving the uniform over-representation of ground herbaceous taxa in different vegetation types. The anthropogenic marker pollen taxa have been established which could provide an insight on the commencement and subsequent pace of anthropic practices in and around the Barak Valley of northeast India.…”

Plant distribution and modern pollen deposition across an elevation eco-gradient: The lesson learnt from a case study in the Italian Alps

“…From the macroscopic (vegetation) to the microscopic (pollen) level, it is becoming more and more relevant for paleoecological and biodiversity conservation studies to investigate the relationships between the plants growing in a certain region and pollen deposition documented by natural or artificial traps. In the past decades, eco-gradients were traced in different biomes in Africa (among others, Bonnefille et al, 1993; Julier et al, 2018; Schüler et al, 2014; Tabares et al, 2018), America (Castro-López et al, 2021; Correa-Metrio et al, 2011; De Oliveira Portes et al, 2020; Urrego et al, 2011), Asia (Guo et al, 2020; Huang et al, 2018; Quamar et al, 2021; Zhang et al, 2018), and Europe (Connor et al, 2021; Fall, 2012; Finsinger et al, 2007; Furlanetto et al, 2019; Hjelle, 1999; Morales-Molino et al, 2020; Ortu et al, 2010; Senn et al, 2022; Servera-Vives et al, 2022). Most of these papers highlight the relationship of both, vegetation and pollen deposition with elevation, others with land use.…”