The relationship between vegetation composition, vegetation zones and modern pollen assemblages in Setesdal, southern Norway

Reconstructing and interpreting past vegetation composition can be enhanced by studying modern pollen samples and contemporary vegetation. Here, we compare pollen in surface sediments from 52 medium-sized lakes with the surrounding vegetation along an elevational gradient covering six major vegetation zones in south-central Norway. The aims are to detect how well the vegetational composition and terrestrial pollen assemblages distinguish the major vegetation zones, whether the pollen composition in surface-sediment samples reflects the composition of the surrounding vegetation and whether aquatic pollen and spores reflect the major vegetation zones. We use multivariate classification trees, ordination and co-correspondence analysis to address these questions. We show that it is possible to separate the major zones using terrestrial pollen assemblages and using plant species in the vegetation reasonably well, whereas aquatic pollen and spores poorly reflect the zones. Surprisingly, the terrestrial pollen assemblages separate the zones better than vegetational composition does. The compositional match between the pollen assemblages and surrounding vegetation is consistent for sites along the elevational gradient within the forested zones, but deteriorates in increasingly open vegetation zones. Our results are consistent with other investigations of modern pollen–vegetation relationships. Careful interpretation of past vegetation from pollen assemblages is needed when the vegetation is treeless because of a larger potential pollen-source area and hence a higher proportion of long-distance dispersed pollen in open areas.