ORCID

Abstract

Palynology, the study of pollen and spores, plays a crucial role in various scientific disciplines, including earth sciences (paleovegetation and paleoclimatology), botany, allergy, archaeology, forensic sciencs and cosmetics. This study delves into the critical question in fossil pollen analysis studies: the minimum count of pollen grains required for accurate estimation of vegetation composition. Various statistical methods have been proposed over the years to address this question. Our research introduces an alternative technique, the orderly count, tailored to the nature of palynological analysis. We apply this method to diverse sediment catchments, including peat bogs, marine and lake sediments, from different geographical locations. Additionally, we revisit the reliability coefficients and propose adjustments for more accurate results. Our findings suggest that relying on statistical methods without considering the specific characteristics of palynological data may lead to low reliability. We advocate for the integration of dissimilarity criteria and the orderly count in sample size assessments for enhanced accuracy in palynological analyses. Our study emphasizes the importance of choosing appropriate methodologies aligned with the unique aspects of palynology to ensure robust and reliable results.

Publication Date

2024-07-14

Publication Title

Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

Volume

328

ISSN

0034-6667

Acceptance Date

2024-07-03

Deposit Date

2024-08-07

Embargo Period

2025-07-06

Funding

The authors would like to thank N\u00FCzhet Dalfes and Sedat Avc\u0131 for their kind input and critical feedback. In this study, some of the reference preparations used in the sequential counts were obtained from our project titled \u201CPollen Atlas of Important Woody Plants of Istanbul.\u201D Therefore, the authors would like to thank the Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of Istanbul University for supporting the aforementioned project. This study was funded by Scientific Research Projects Coordination Unit of Istanbul University. Project number: FBA-2020-36100. Bikem Ekberzade was funded under ITU-BAP grant number MDK-2023-44546, and TUBITAK Grant 123O248. The financial support received from TUBITAK does not mean that the content of the publication is approved in a scientific sense by TUBITAK.

Keywords

Minimum count, Orderly count, Pollen analysis, Pollen count

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