Chapter 16

Holocene Palynology

1 Introduction.............................................................................................................. 463
2 Holocene Palynological Methods ........................................................................... 465
3 Presentation of “Pollen Analysis” Data.................................................................. 470
4 Holocene Chronology.............................................................................................. 472
5 Some Characteristic Holocene Pollen Analyses..................................................... 478
5.1 Europe............................................................................................................ 478
5.2 North America ............................................................................................... 479
6 Applications of Holocene Palynology .................................................................... 487
7 “Theory of Pollen Analysis” ................................................................................... 493

1 Introduction

Many palynologists concerned with study of the (relatively) glacier-free time in

which we live agree that aside from human disturbance of Earth systems, it is
presumptuous to speak of it as a completely different epoch, the “Holocene.”
Also, it is too soon to presume that the Pleistocene is over, and thus “post-
glacial” is likewise inappropriate. In westernmost Europe palynologists sometimes
refer to the “Flandrian” as the timespan of about 11,000 years since the last
major retreat of continental ice sheets. However, this term cannot readily be
transferred to other parts of the world. A term such as “present interglacial” has
problems too, as we do not know for sure that another glacial time follows. For
the present we seem to be obliged to follow convention and say “Holocene”
for the last approximately 11,000 years. There are geologists who feel that the
Holocene can be defended as an epoch/series from purely geological reasoning.
In any case, Holocene palynology has always had different approaches from
palynology of older sediments, as we have seen. One can practically neglect the
presence of extinct or grossly exotic species. Thus, floral studies based on known
present plant associations and their ecological requirements, and rather precise
paleoclimatological deductions, are possible.
In the pre-Holocene Neogene, pre-11,000 years ago, the same sort of approach
is possible, but the SFI (steppe/forest index) curve in Fig. 15.4 is an illustration
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of differences. The SFI curve is too crude for the Holocene, where more precise
analytical methods are possible. On the other hand, the SFI curve is also progres-
sively less good as one works back to the early Pliocene and into the Miocene,
because plant communities with no modern analog were dominant in the Black
Sea drainage; for example, Artemisia and grasses were no longer found. Palyno-
logical count data in the pre-Holocene can be mathematically analyzed with
multivariate analytical techniques to pick up associations of taxa that one might
not recognize in terms of modern plant associations. This is a better approach
than to attempt to reconstruct pre-Holocene forest communities from the pollen-
analytical results, as is possible in the Holocene, based on modern analogs.
In the pre-Holocene we may be obliged to use fungal spores, acritarchs, algal
colonies, wood and cuticle fragments, and especially dinoflagellate cysts to tell
us things about temperature, salinity, and pH. The paleoecological approach in
the Holocene has to do largely with forest history, plant-association history, and
other related ecological matters. For the most part, peats and lake sediments,
prevailingly autochthonous, are studied. In the pre-Holocene, we often study
allochthonous sediments (though peats and lake sediments are also investigated),
and we therefore look at a broader, regional picture for our environmental trends.
In Holocene palynology the normal approach is very careful study of pollen-
rain from the potential source plant communities and their ecological require-
ments. Precise pollen analytical counts of very closely spaced samples from
cored sediments, and the plotting of these analyses in rather standardized “pollen
diagrams,” is employed, in conjunction with 14 C dates (see examples later in
this chapter). A good example of a broad-scale pre-Holocene approach is the
work of Heusser et al. (1980), in which modern pollen “rain” of surface samples
from Alaska to California was studied, and known broad climatic indications
were applied mathematically to pollen-analytical data from cores obtained in
Washington State, to ascertain probable temperature and precipitation at various
levels in the cores representing about the last 80,000 years–well back into the
Pleistocene.
It should be emphasized that the entire Holocene has been influenced by the
activities of human beings. Study of palynomorph assemblages has been widely
applied to investigation of the interplay of environment and humans. I do not
recognize the validity of the concept of “subfossil,” which says that traces of
former life in the crust of the earth are not truly fossil unless they are older than
6,000 or 10,000 yrs., depending on the opinions of the proposer of the subfossil
idea. In my view, all traces of former life in sediments are fossils, regardless
of age. Thus, “paleopalynology” definitely includes archaeological palynology,
a subject that is well outlined by Bryant and Holloway (1996). Study of the
palynology of archaeological sites is particularly important in gaining insights
into the diets of ancient humans and such matters as the origins of agriculture (cf.
Bryant, 2003). One fascinating aspect of such study is the palynological investi-
gation of fossil feces (= coprolites; see summary in Sobolik, 1996). Pollen from