North American Surface Sample Dataset (2.5MB)

This dataset archives pollen surface samples from North America, along with attributed climatic and vegetational data for each location. A full description of the dataset and its compilation is provided by Whitmore et al. (2005). This data is the foundation for a new atlas of modern pollen-climate and pollen-vegetation relationships (Williams et al., 2006).

Whitmore, J., Gajewski, K., Sawada, M., Williams, J. W., Shuman, B., Bartlein, P. J., Minckley, T., Viau, A. E., Webb, T., III, Anderson, P. M., and Brubaker, L. B. (2005). North American and Greenland modern pollen data for multi-scale paleoecological and paleoclimatic applications. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, 1828-1848.

Williams, J. W., B. Shuman, P. J. Bartlein, J. Whitmore, K. Gajewski, M. Sawada, T. Minckley, S. Shafer, A. E. Viau, T. Webb, III, P. M. Anderson, L. B. Brubaker, C. Whitlock, and O. K. Davis. (2006). An Atlas of Pollen-Vegetation-Climate Relationships for the United States and Canada. American Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists Foundation, Dallas, TX, 293p.

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Modern Plant-Climate Research Dataset for Eastern North American Plant Taxa (5MB)

This research dataset was created from the North American Modern Pollen Database (version 1.6.1) (Whitmore et al., 2005) with the purpose of modeling plant-climate relationships for taxa in eastern North America. The dataset contains 2,613 sites in eastern North America and Canada. The majority of sites (70.9%) in the research dataset are lacustrine. Palustrine sites compose 2.2% of the dataset and are concentrated in north-eastern Canada in areas where there is a paucity of lacustrine sites. Moss polsters compose 12.1% of the research dataset, and are most concentrated in south-eastern North America and in parts of northern Canada where lacustrine sites are scarce . We also included sites with unknown depositional environments (14.7%) because it is possible they are lacustrine sites. The dataset contains pollen counts, percentages, environmental variables, and fractional woody cover for each site.

Although the primary purpose for creating this dataset was to model late-glacial pollen-climate relationships in eastern North America, other potential uses of this dataset include vegetation reconstruction at local to subcontinental scales and forward modeling of pollen and vegetation from climate variables. For regional- to subcontinental-scale climate and vegetation reconstructions for eastern North America, the research dataset can be used without further modification. Other uses may require either selecting other sets of samples from the North American Modern Pollen Database or collecting additional information not yet available in the NAMPD (e.g. lake area and local vegetation types).

Gonzales, L.M., Grimm, E.C., Williams, J.W, and Nordheim, E.V. (in press) A modern plant-climate research dataset for modeling eastern North American plant taxa. Grana. (pre-print)

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