Modern pollen rain and fungal spore assemblages from pasture woodlands at Lake Saint-Point (France)

Benjamin Dietre (1, 2) , Emilie Gauthier (1) , François Gillet (1, 3)

1 LCE - Laboratoire Chrono-environnement (UMR 6249)
2 Institut für Botanik
3 ECOS - Laboratoire des systèmes écologiques

Modern analogs are commonly used to investigate the relationships between modern pollen rain and the surrounding present vegetation and to improve our interpretation of fossil data. We collectedmodern pollen and spore rain in 18more or less grazed and/or forested sites around Lake Saint-Point (JuraMountains, France). Multivariate numerical techniques were applied to understand how modern pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP) taxa, collected in moss and dung samples, record local vegetation in the surroundings, and to identify indicators of tree cover or grazing.We showa strong relationship between current local herbaceous vegetation and pollen but underline the limits of past vegetation reconstructions based on AP/NAP ratio. In moss samples, we identified Picea, Abies, Fagus and Corylus pollen as well as Trichocladium, Kretschmaria deusta and Cirrenalia as indicators of tree cover. Spores of Sporormiella and some undetermined palynomorphs such as new NPP LCE-13 were positively correlated with openness while LCE-23 and LCE-32 could represent grazing indicators and/or coprophilous types. As compared to moss samples, dung samples contained much more pollen grains from Trifolium repens-type, Trifolium pratense-type, Plantago lanceolata-type and Plantago major/media-type taxa (grassland species eaten by cattle) and spores from coprophilous fungi.

Mots clés: non-pollen palynomorphs; pasture woodlands; modern analogs; Jura Mountains

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Benjamin Dietre, Emilie Gauthier, François Gillet. Modern pollen rain and fungal spore assemblages from pasture woodlands at Lake Saint-Point (France). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 2012, 186, pp.69-89. ⟨10.1016/j.revpalbo.2012.07.002⟩. ⟨hal-00768722⟩