Quaternary palaeoecology and vegetation science— current contributions and possible future developments

Abstract

Quaternary palaeoecology and vegetation science seem to have little in common today, despite similar aims and interests. Both subjects have much to contribute to each other. Three contributions of vegetation science to Quaternary palaeoecology are discussed: (1) the ecological interpretation of fossil assemblages using the plant-sociological literature, (2) the numerical arrangement of stratigraphical pollen diagrams to produce “structured” pollen diagrams, and (3) the use of ecological indicator values to reconstruct past environments from local-scale pollen-stratigraphical data. Three contributions of Quaternary palaeoecology to vegetation science are reviewed: (1) the recent history of the Blechno-Quercetum petraeae association of western Britain, (2) the antiquity of modern vegetation types as assessed by analogue matching, and (3) the integration (or otherwise) of vegetation over long time periods. Future developments at strengthening the links between Quaternary palaeoecology and vegetation science are suggested. These are: (1) greater concern with spatial, temporal, and taxonomic precision, (2) more rigorous design of projects and selection of sites in relation to the aims of the investigation, and (3) the need for rigorous hypothesis testing in palaeoecology using Monte Carlo permutation procedures to assess statistical significances. The contributions of J.C. Ritchie to vegetation science and Quaternary palaeoecology are reviewed.