Examining pollen from a peat bog can give information about past climate change.

What is it about?

We collected a core of peat from a bog at Poutwater Pond (Holden, Massachusetts). Radiocarbon dating showed that there is 8,500 years of accumulated peat deposits at this location. In other studies, various authors have used light microscope approaches and found a decline in hemlock pollen during the mid-Holocene which suggests changes in past climate. Our study used scanning electron microscopy images to count pollen grains from our core and found a three-phased decline between 5,700 and 4,700 calibrated years before present. Our results were compared with previously published light microscope data from other sites in Massachusetts and New York.

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Photo by Lesly Derksen on Unsplash

Photo by Lesly Derksen on Unsplash