Integration of Late Glacial and Holocene pollen data from Poland

Abstract

Scalenie późnoglacjalnych i holoceńskich danych palinologicznych z obszaru Polski Quaternary palynological data are stored in tables which are typical computer database objects. The individual pollen table, in order to be integrated with other tables using computer-based methods, has to be attributed with (1) geographical coordinates, (2) dates attached to each row' (sample) of the table, and (3) taxa names, common to all tables, attached to each column. In this paper, integration o f individual lists o f palynological taxa is shortly described, and some remarks are given on extracting data for selected time slices. The problem of dating of all pollen spectra, while few radiocarbon dates are available in the profile, is considered. Some mathematical models of age-depth relation are proposed, as well as incorporation of information derived from lithology of the profile. The algorithm of integration (averaging) of pollen percentages on the map of Poland is discussed. The techniques of bootstrap and so-called removed residuals are proposed as tools for assessment of reliability of isopollen lines. A possibility of construction of migration (rate of change) maps is also mentioned. The presented algorithm has been used to obtain hundreds of isopollcn maps for the Holocene in the area of Poland.