To investigate the influence of regional pollen inputs on reconstructing local vegetation, we compared modem pollen assemblages deposited in forest hollow sediments from two study areas, Michigan and Wisconsin. Local forest-stand composition (within 50 m) at all sites is dominated by hemlock and northern hardwood trees, but the regional abundance of tree taxa in the two study areas is not the same. Modern pollen assemblages differ between the two study areas, corresponding with differences in regional vegetation. Oak and pine pollen are more abundant in Wisconsin samples, whereas sugar maple, birch and hemlock pollen are more abundant in Michigan samples. Pollen assemblages differed most between study areas for hardwood stands, reflecting lower pollen production of sugar maple and basswood, which exaggerates regional pollen inputs. However, within each study area, surface pollen assemblages are sufficiently different to permit differentiation of hemlock and hardwood stand types, suggesting that regional pollen inputs are similar on the scale of tens of kilometres. Therefore, stand-scale forest histories can be derived from forest-hollow sediments using modern analogues, but our results emphasize the importance of understanding the regional vegetation context and inferring how regional vegetation has changed in the past.
Andersen, S.1970: The relative pollen productivity and pollen representation of North European trees, and correction factors for tree pollen spectra. Geological Survey of Denmark II, Series 96, 1-99.
2.
Behre, K.E.1988: The role of man in European vegetation history. In Huntley, B. and Webb, T. III , editors, Vegetation history, Dordrecht: Kluwer , 633-672.
3.
Birks, H.J.B. and Gordon, A.D.1985: Numerical methods in quaternary pollen analysis. London: Academic Press .
4.
Björkman, L. and Bradshaw, R.1996. The immigration of Fagus sylvatica L. and Picea abies (L.) Karst. into a natural forest stand in southern Sweden during the last 2000 years . Journal of Biogeography23, 235-244 .
5.
Bradshaw, R.H.1981: Modern pollen-representation factors for woods in Southeast England . Journal of Ecology69, 45-70 .
6.
Bradshaw, R.H.1988: Spatially-precise studies of forest dynamics. In Huntley, B. and Webb, T. III , editors, Vegetation history, Dordrecht: Kluwer , 725-751.
7.
Calcote, R.1995: Pollen source area and pollen productivity: evidence from forest hollows . Journal of Ecology83, 591-602 .
8.
Calcote, R.1998: Identifying forest stand types using pollen from forest hollows . The Holocene8, 423-432 .
9.
Curtis, J.T.1959: The vegetation of Wisconsin: an ordination of plant communities. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press .
10.
Davis, M.B. , Calcote, R.R. , Sugita, S.S. and Takahara, H.1998: Patchy invasion and the origin of a hemlock-hardwoods forest mosaic . Ecology79(8), 2641-2659 .
11.
Davis, M.B. , Woods, K.D. , Webb, S.L. and Futyma, R.P.1986: Dispersal versus climate: expansion of Fagus and Tsuga into the Upper Great Lakes region . Vegetatio67, 93-103 .
12.
Dilworth, J.R. and Bell, J.F.1982: Variable probability sampling: variable plot and three-P. Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Book Stores .
13.
Faegri, K. and Iversen, J.1989: Textbook of pollen analysis (fourth edition). Chichester: John Wiley .
14.
Fagerlind, F.1952: The real significance of pollen diagrams . Botaniska Notiser105, 185-224 .
15.
Foster, D.R. and Zebryk, T.M.1993: Long-term vegetation dynamics and disturbance history of a Tsuga-dominated forest in New England . Ecology74, 982-998 .
16.
Grimm, E.C.1987: Coniss: a Fortran 77 program for stratigraphically constrained cluster analysis by the method of incremental sum of squares . Computers and Geoscience13, 13-35 .
17.
Hansen, M.H. , Frieswyk, T. , Glover, J.F. and Kelly, J.F.1992: The Eastwide forest inventoty data base: users manual. St. Paul, MN: Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, North Central Forest Experiment Station .
18.
Heide, K.1984: Holocene pollen stratigraphy from a lake and small hollow in north-central Wisconsin, USA . Palynology8, 3-20 .
19.
Heide, K.M. and Bradshaw, R.1982: The pollen-tree relationship within forests of Wisconsin and upper Michigan, USA . Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology36, 1-23 .
20.
Houghton, R.A.1994: The worldwide extent of land-use change . Bioscience44, 305-313 .
21.
Jackson, S.T.1990: Pollen source area and representation in small lakes of the northeastern United States . Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology63, 53-76 .
22.
Jackson, S.T.1994: Pollen and spores in Quaternary lake sediments as sensors of vegetation composition: theoretical models and empirical evidence. In Traverse, A. , editor, Sedimentation of organic particles, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press , 253-286.
23.
Jackson, S.T. and Kearsley, J.B.1998: Quantitative representation of local forest composition in forest-floor pollen assemblages . Journal of Ecology86, 474-490 .
24.
Jackson, S.T. and Lyford, M.E.1999. Pollen dispersal models in Quaternary plant ecology: assumptions, parameters, and prescriptions . Botanical Review65, 39-75 .
25.
Jackson, S.T. and Wong, A.1994: Using forest patchiness to determine pollen source areas of closed-canopy pollen assemblages . Journal of Ecolog82, 89-99 .
26.
Jacobson, G.L. Jr.1979: The paleoecology of white pine (Pinus strobus) in Minnesota . Journal of Ecology67, 697-726 .
27.
Jacobson, G.L. Jr. and Bradshaw, R.H.W.1981: The selection of sites for paleovegetational studies . Quaternary Research16, 80-96 .
28.
Jacobson, G.L. Jr. and Grimm, E.C.1986: A numerical analysis of Holocene forest and prairie vegetation in central Minnesota . Ecology67, 958-966 .
29.
Janssen, C.R.1973: Local and regional pollen deposition. In Birks, H.J.B. and West, R.G. , editors, Quaternary plant ecology, Oxford: Blackwell , 31-42.
30.
Lynch, E.1996: The ability of pollen from small lakes and ponds to sense fine-scale vegetation patterns in the central Rocky Mountains, USA . Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology94, 197-210 .
31.
McAndrews, J.H.1988: Human disturbance of North American forest and grasslands: the fossil pollen record. In Huntley, B. and Webb, T. III , editors, Vegetation history, Dordrecht: Kluwer , 673-697.
32.
McLachlan, J.S. , Foster, D.R. and Menalled, F.2000: Anthropogenic ties to late-successional structure and composition in four New England hemlock stands . Ecology81(3), 717-733 .
33.
Overpeck, J.T. , Webb, T. III and Prentice, I.C.1985: Quantitative interpretation of fossil pollen spectra: dissimilarity coefficients and method of modern analogs . Quaternary Research23, 87-108 .
34.
Parshall, T. 1998: Forest stand invasion and expansion: a 2500-year history of eastern hemlock at its western range limit. PhD dissertation, Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN.
35.
Prentice, I.C.1980: Multidimensional scaling as a research tool in Quaternary palynology: a review of theory and methods . Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology31, 71-104 .
36.
Prentice, I.C.1985: Pollen representation, source area, and basin size: toward a unified theory of pollen analysis . Quaternary Research23, 76-86 .
37.
Prentice, I.C.1986a: Forest-composition calibration of pollen data. In Berglund, B.E. , editor, Handbook of holocene palaeoecology and palaeohydrology, Chichester: John Wiley , 799-816.
38.
Prentice, I.C.1986b: Multivariate methods for data analysis. In Berglund, B.E. , editor, Handbook of Holocene palaeoecology and palaeohydrology, Chichester: John Wiley , 775-797.
39.
Prentice, I.C. and Webb, T. III1986: Pollen percentages, tree abundances and the Fagerlind effect . Journal of Quaternary Science1, 35-43 .
40.
Schwartz, M.W.1989: Predicting tree frequencies from pollen frequency: an attempt to validate the R value method . New Phytologist112, 129-143 .
41.
Sugita, S.1993: A model of pollen source area for an entire lake surface . Quiaternary Research39, 239-244 .
42.
Sugita, S.1994: Pollen representation of vegetation in Quaternary sediments: theory and method in patchy vegetation . Joturnal of Ecology82, 881-897 .
43.
Sugita, S. , Gaillard, M.-J. and Broström, A.1999: Landscape openness and pollen records: a simulation approach . The Holocene9, 409-421 .
44.
Sugita, S. , MacDonald, G.M. and Larsen, C.P.S.1997: Reconstruction of fire disturbance and forest succession from fossil pollen in lake sediments: potential and limitations. In Clark, J.S. , Cachier, H. , Goldammer, J.G. and Stocks, B. , editors, Sediment records of biomass burning and global change, NATO ASI Series, Berlin: Springer-Verlag , 387-412.
45.
Sutton, O.G.1953: micrometeorology: a study of physical processes in the lowest layers of the Earth's atmosphere. New York: McGraw-Hill .
46.
Tauber, H.1965: Differential pollen dispersion and the interpretation of pollen diagrams. Danm. Geol. Unders. II Raekke Series 89, 1-69.
47.
Webb, T. III , Cushing, E.J. and Wright, H.E. Jr.1983: Holocene changes in the vegetation of the Midwest. In: Wright, H.E. Jr. , editor, Late-Quaternary environments of the United States, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press , 142-165.
48.
Webb, T. III , Howe, S.E. , Bradshaw, R.H.W. and Heide, K.M.1981: Estimating plant abundances from pollen percentages: the use of regression analysis . Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology34, 269-300 .
