Many of us think about pollen only when allergy season is upon us.
Many of us think about pollen only when allergy season is upon us.
However, for soil scientists like Matthew Ricker, pollen can be an invaluable tool. By tracking fossil pollen in soil, scientists can look back in time to better understand past land use and climate dynamics.
For example, when European settlers cleared forests in the eastern United States and planted crops, the pollen profile in soil changed. Ragweed and grass pollen became more common. Tree pollen became rarer.
But, the study of fossil pollen has been restricted to relatively few sites, usually those near lakes or bogs. In a new study, Ricker and colleagues report that fossil pollen can be a viable tool in floodplain soils.
“We show that floodplains can contain abundant preserved pollen,” says Ricker, a scientist at North Carolina State University. “Therefore, floodplains can be useful sites to explore past climate and land uses.”
Read more at American Society of Agronomy
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
