Evaluation of Holocene pollen records from the Romanian Plain

This study is a critical review of pollen analyses carried out on Holocene sequences from 15 sites in and near the Romanian Plain. Three sites come fr om natural sediments, 10 sites are from anthropogenic deposits and two are from both anthropogenic and natural settings. The general reconstruction is of a steppe-forest-steppe vegetation through the Holocene. The nature of t he deposits, however, casts doubts on this reconstruction. Deposits of arch aeological sites generally yield pollen spectra that are influenced by huma n activities and thus unsuitable for vegetation reconstructions. Loess depo sits are also unfavorable for pollen preservation because of high pH and po rosity. Consequently, pollen spectra from loess deposits are strongly biase d by selective pollen destruction. Research and experiments carried out by several authors suggest that spectra dominated by Asteraceae, Poaceae, Chen opodiaceae or Pinus pollen in soils and loess are a result of selective pol len destruction, especially if low pollen concentrations, progressive polle n deterioration or high frequencies of deteriorated or unidentifiable polle n are evidenced. The fact that pollen records from the Romanian Plain come from loess, alkaline peat or archaeological sites reduces their reliability for reconstructions of vegetation. The vegetation history of similar regio ns in Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey suggests that early Holocene steppe vege tation was gradually replaced by forest or forest-steppe vegetation in the late Holocene. Records from lake sediments are required to find out whether the Holocene vegetation history of the Romanian Plain was similar. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.