Vegetation history

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. Background and Methods

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Ancient permanent plots: Sampling in paleovegetational studies

      • George L. Jacobson Jr

      Pages 3-16

   3. Records of vegetation in time and space: the principles of pollen analysis

      • Colin Prentice

      Pages 17-42

   4. Data analysis and display

      • Eric C. Grimm

      Pages 43-76

   5. Time-scales and dating

      • Matti Saarnisto

      Pages 77-112

   6. Late-tertiary and quaternary palaeoenvironments

      • Patrick J. Bartlein

      Pages 113-152

3. Late-tertiary and pleistocene vegetation history — 20My to 20Ky

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 153-153

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   2. Europe

      • William A. Watts

      Pages 155-192

   3. North America

      • Linda E. Heusser, James E. King

      Pages 193-236

   4. Australasia

      • A. P. Kershaw

      Pages 237-306

   5. South America

      • Thomas Van Der Hammen

      Pages 307-337

4. Glacial and holocene vegetation history — 20Ky to present

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 339-339

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   2. Europe

      • Brian Huntley

      Pages 341-383

   3. Eastern North America

      • Thompson Webb III

      Pages 385-414

   4. Western North America

      • Robert S. Thompson

      Pages 415-458

   5. Japan

      • Matsuo Tsukada

      Pages 459-518

   6. The Arctic

      • Henry F. Lamb, Mary E. Edwards

      Pages 519-555

   7. New Zealand

      • Matthew S. Mcglone

      Pages 557-599

5. Smaller-scale studies

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 601-601

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The analysis of vegetation history is one of the prime objectives for vegetation scientists. In order to understand the recent composition of local floras and plant communities a second knowledge of species com­ position during recent millenia is essential. With the present concern over climate changes, due to human activities, an understanding of past vegeta­ tion distribution becomes even more important, since the correlation between climate and vegetation can often be used to predict possible impacts to crops and forests. I was very fortunate to receive the help of Drs. Webb and Huntley to compile this volume on vegetation history. They have collated an impres­ sive set of papers which together give an account of the vegetation history of most of the continents during the late-Tertiary and Quaternery periods. There are, however, gaps in the coverage achieved, most notably Africa, and Asia apart from Japan. The information in this book will nonetheless certainly be used widely by vegetation scientists for the regions covered in the book and much of it has relevance to the areas not explicitly described. The authors of the individual chapters have done their best to cover recent topics of interest as well as established facts. It is intended that a separate volume will be produced in the near future covering the vegetation history of Africa and Asia. I thank the editors of It fits well into the this volume for their commendable achievement.

• Polle
• Vegetation
• climate
• climate change
• environment
• flora
• forest
• plant
• hydrogeology

`This volume should become a standard textbook for any type of vegetation scientist, biographer, and evolutionary biologist, student and teacher alike. Paleoecologists will find it equally worthwhile for its concise and state-of-the-art introduction into principles of palynology, and for its specific regional overviews.'
V. Markgraf, Arctic and Alpine Research, 21:4
`The book should be made available as widely as possible to students and to their teachers. It may then help to contribute in some measure to providing an alternative set of empirical models to be ranged against the insane star-wars optimism of the current and proposed climate and IGBP models which, like the medlar, will be 'rotten before they are half ripe'. This is no laughing matter. Our children's lives may be at stake.'
Journal of Biogeography, 17:6, 1990

• Department of Botony, Science Laboratories, University of Durham, Durham, England

  B. Huntley

• Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, USA

  T. Webb

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