APPLICATION OF MODERN POLLEN LAND-USE RELATIONSHIPS TO THE INTERPRETATION OF POLLEN DIAGRAMS - RECONSTRUCTIONS OF LAND-USE HISTORY IN SOUTHSWEDEN, 3000-0 BP

A modem pollen/land-use data-set of 124 surface samples (moss polsters ) from different vegetation and land-use types in south Sweden is pres ented. The samples are from non-fertilized grazed areas, burned and gr azed heaths, traditionally managed fodder-producing meadows and cultiv ated fields, and deciduous forests. Twenty nine environmental (e.g. ma nagement type, soil chemistry) variables are available for the 124 sam ples. Patterns of modern local pollen variation in relation to these e nvironmental variables are explored by canonical correspondence analys is (CCA) and tested by associated statistical procedures. The modem da ta-set is used to aid interpretation of extra-local pollen sequences f rom two small lakes and one mire in south Sweden, using CCA as a means of comparing modem and fossil spectra. The resulting land-use reconst ructions are compared to earlier interpretations of the same pollen-st ratigraphical data using the more traditional ''indicator-species'' ap proach. Emphasis is placed on the history of mowing and grazing in sou th Sweden as an example of the potential uses of the comparative appro ach for interpretating fossil pollen data in terms of past land-use.