Palaeoecological materials and methods

The spectrum of methods used in Quaternary palaeoecology and vegetation history is very broad and can only be briefly summarized in this chapter. A number of more detailed books and book chapters exist for various specific topics. A comprehensive introduction by Birks and Birks (1980), reprinted in 2004, offers much more than methods: namely principles, research questions and results. Decades ago the need to standardize methods across Europe was felt and, within the International Geological Correlation Programme, the project on Palaeohydrology (IGCP 158a on rivers, IGCP 158b on lakes) first produced a handbook on methods edited by Berglund (1986), reprinted in 2003, and subsequently a synthesis by Berglund et al. (1996a). These, in turn, led to the establishment of the European Pollen Database (EPD). More recently two new major methodological sources have become available: (1) Tracking Environmental Change Using Lake Sediments now published in the Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research series, especially volumes 1, 3 and 5 and (2) the sections about pollen and plant macrofossils in volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science (2007 and 2nd edition in 2013 edited by S.A. Elias and C.J. Mock).
Methods help to address the basic questions of ‘where’, ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ did changes in flora and vegetation occur? In other words, what and where are the natural archives, how do we extract botanical information from them, how can we develop a chronology and what processes may explain the changes (or the stability)? Answers to these questions will help to formulate the next research questions of why, where and how to continue. Concise introductions to the principles are offered for pollen analysis by Seppä (2007a, 2013) and for plant macrofossil analysis by H.H. Birks (2007a, 2013), Jackson and Booth (2013) and Birks (2014).