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Palynology in Historical Rural-Landscape Studies: Great Meadows, Pennsylvania

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Gerald K. Kelso
Gerald K. Kelso*
Affiliation:
Paleoresearch Laboratories, 15485 W. 44th Ave., Suite A, Golden, CO 80403
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Abstract

Pollen deposited on the ground surface is carried down into the soil by percolating groundwater. Such postdepositional pollen transport preserves the record of historical vegetation and land use in slowly or nonaggrading sediment profiles by separating the pollen spectra of successive ground covers. This is demonstrated at Great Meadows, Pennsylvania, where pollen spectra in hillside cores indicating a preagricultural-era forest are succeeded during the clearance and agricultural period by weed and cereal pollen during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. These are, in turn, replaced by grass during the park period of the last 65 years. The preagricultural pollen spectra indicate that differences in historical ground cover across relatively short horizontal distances and elevations can be reconstructed with pollen analysis.

Resumen

Resumen

El polen depositado en superficie es absorbido por el suelo a través de la percolación del agua subterránea. Esta forma de transporte o post-deposición de polen preserva el registro de vegetación histórica y de uso de la tierra en perfiles sedimentológicos de acumulación lenta o no agradante, puesto que separa los espectros de polen en coberturas de suelo sucesivas. Este proceso está demonstrado en Great Meadows, Pensilvania, donde los espectros de polen de floresta de la era pre-agrícola en muestras de una ladera son sucedidos por polen de hierbas y cereales en el período agricola durante los siglos XIX y XX. Estos, a su vez, son reemplazados por pasto durante el período de parque en los últimos 65 años. Los espectros de polen pre-agrícola indican que diferencias en la cobertura del suelo a través de distancias horizontales y elevaciones relativamente cortas pueden ser reconstruidas con el análisis de polen.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 59 , Issue 2 , April 1994 , pp. 359 - 372
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1994

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References

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